With finance minister Pranab Mukherjee expressing concern over the quality of notes at one of the recent meetings of Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), the Cabinet secretariat has shot off a letter to all the secretaries of ministries and department asking them to impeccably follow the instructions forwarded to them.
In the letter, a copy of which is with this newspaper, the Cabinet secretariat suggested that EGoM notes should reach to it at least a week before the scheduled meeting of the empowered group on the lines of cabinet note, as a decision taken is considered to be final by the government.
Reminding the ministries and department that Mr Mukherjee, who heads most of the EGoMs, “had also mentioned about the quality of note” at one of the meetings, the letter said, “The office of Cabinet secretariat requests that the note be finalised for consideration of EGoM need to be in conformity with the instructions and forwarded to the cabinet secretariat well within the time to enable a meaningful scrutiny of such notes.”
Further elaborating on the instructions the letter said, “It may be ensured that the notes for EGoM are procedurally complaint, informative, concise and should be based on consultations.” Though the letter avoids mentioning any specific case, it informed the secretaries that in some cases, “it is seen that the note forwarded by your ministries/departments are often rushed just one or two days prior to the scheduled meeting, which hardly leaves any time for scrutiny by this office”.
Earlier in May this year, the Cabinet secretariat had asked the ministries and departments that besides the format and content of the notes for considerations, they should also take care of security gradation.