CSMOP: Urgent messages to flow directly from top to acting officers, rest to be informed later

NEW DELHI: Government decisions can now be directly conveyed from the ‘top’ to the implementing officers in “urgent matters” while other officers that have been jumped in the hierarchy can be informed later.

This is the key change made in a latest trimmed down and smarter avatar of what is the Bible of the central bureaucracy. The government is now circulating to all ministries the latest version of Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure (CSMOP) which is nearly 1/5th in length of its earlier 2010 version.

The CSMOP is the go-to document for all bureaucrats at the Centre since 1955 on how to perform their official duties and handle files. As per the May 2015 14th version of the CSMOP, files can now pass through a maximum of four levels of bureaucracy instead of three in the UPA regime.

But a key clause, 14 (iv) has been added. “In cases of urgent matters, the decisions may be conveyed directly to the officer concerned for implementation, who after doing the same, shall bring it to the notice of the levels of officers, that have been jumped in the hierarchy,” the new CSMOP version says.

So while an additional level of vetting on the file’s way up to the Minister may eat up some time in decision-making, the new provision will ensure there is no delay in implementing the decisions in “urgent matters” by skipping bureaucracy hierarchy chain on the way down. Also, a new urgency grading of “top priority” files has been introduced to classify files/cases in addition to the existing ‘Immediate’ and ‘Priority’ categories. “The label ‘immediate’ will be used in cases requiring prompt action.

Amongst the rest, the ‘priority’ label will be used for cases which merit disposal in precedence to others of ordinary nature. ‘Top Priority’ will be applied in extremely urgent cases,” the CSMOP specifies. MoS in PMO, Jitendra Singh, in an attached note to the CSMOP, says it has been prepared to achieve the government’s important agenda of ‘maximum governance, minimum government’ and make office work speedier.

“I am sure the manual will be of help to all who serve the central secretariat to increase their efficiency and effectiveness and remove a lot of red tape, for which we are charged,” Singh has said.