Thursday Sep 19, 2024
Thursday Sep 19, 2024
Wednesday, 2 September 2020 00:36 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Chandani Kirinde
The Cabinet Office on Monday issued fresh guidelines for submission of Cabinet memoranda/notes to ministry secretaries.
The 14-page guidelines set out matters which need approval by the Cabinet and those that do not need Cabinet sanction. The guidelines include the steps to be followed when formulating new legislation/laws or amendments to an existing law.
Matters for which approval of the Cabinet of Ministers should be sought include those relating to National Policy formulation for which approval has not been granted previously by a Budget as well as before submission of supplementary estimates to Parliament.
These include formulation of new National Policies or revision of existing National Policies pertaining to the subjects and functions assigned to the Cabinet ministries and the State ministries coming under the purview of such ministries. Sectoral policies, strategies and plans prepared within the approved National Policy and projects and programs recommended by the Department of National Planning to be implemented in conformity with the approved national policy will also need Cabinet approval.
Signing of agreements/memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with foreign governments/international organisations/foreign agencies on behalf of the Government subject to taking action as per the Circular dated 19 December 2019 issued by the Secretary to the President in relation to this matter also needs Cabinet approval.
In the circular issued last December, the President’s Office banned Government ministers and State institutions, including provincial councils, from entering into direct agreements or memoranda of understanding with foreign investors, lending agencies, international non-governmental organisations and embassies, and set out specific guidelines lines to be followed in such instances.
Only the President, Prime Minister, or a minister of the Cabinet can submit matters to the Cabinet through a Cabinet memorandum or a note to the Cabinet. Cabinet papers pertaining to subjects and functions assigned to State ministers can be submitted by the relevant Cabinet minister where necessary.
The guidelines state that the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers should not be sought on matters falling within the scope of institutions such as provincial councils, the Public Service Commission, and the National Police Commission, where power has been delegated in terms of the provisions of the Constitution. Such matters should be referred to the Cabinet for consideration only if such institutions intend that Cabinet approval is deemed essential for the same.
The Secretaries of the Ministries have been told to pay special attention to several matters when presenting Cabinet memoranda/notes, including keeping the language of the memorandum/note to the Cabinet simple and easy to comprehend and limiting the contents to two pages.
The font size, line spacing, paper size, and margin size are also specified in the guidelines.
The idea expressed in the language of the original Cabinet memorandum/note to the Cabinet should be correctly incorporated in the translations.
Ministry secretaries have been asked not to submit Cabinet memoranda/notes with typographical and translation errors and to pay special attention to the accuracy of the numerical data with numerical information correctly incorporated in the translated copies as well.
The guidelines added that since Cabinet memoranda/notes to the Cabinet and the decisions relevant thereto are treated as 'confidential documents', it will be the responsibility of all secretaries to ministries to ensure that the said documents or the information contained in them do not fall into the hands of irrelevant parties.
