Do away with sending huge 'DO' letters: Cabinet Secretary T V Somanathan

Ministry-specific formats being developed to capture key metrics

Cabinet Secretary T V Somanathan has sought to reinvigorate the six-decade-long practice of secretaries sending periodic demi-official, or DO, letters to his office. This practice, introduced in 1964 as a tool to inform the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) about “significant happenings” in their respective ministries, has lost its purpose and effectiveness over time as these letters became voluminous.

 

In a memo to secretaries on October 24, Somanathan asked them to discontinue sending lengthy monthly DO letters, which have now become “a consolidation of information compiled from ministries and departments" and "put together in the format of a letter running into many pages.” With the advent of digital tools, such as the government’s E-Samiksha mechanism, such DO letters have “lost their effectiveness as a meaningful tool to draw attention to important matters,” he noted.

 

Somanathan said he has re-assessed the mechanism and asked secretaries to “send a very brief monthly letter of one or, at most, two pages.” These letters should contain policy and other matters pending due to prolonged inter-ministerial consultations that the secretaries wish to bring to his notice. The monthly DO letters could also include proposals pending for long in the Cabinet Secretariat or the PMO, details of cases involving a departure from the Rules of Business, and any other significant developments the secretaries feel warrant attention, Somanathan stated.

 

The Cabinet Secretary stated that the monthly report prescribed in 2014 and 2022 is now discontinued and need not be submitted. He added that the Cabinet Secretariat has undertaken an exercise to develop department-specific formats capturing key controllable parameters, indicators, and metrics relating to each ministry and department.

 

“Once individual monthly report formats are finalised for ministries/departments, details specified therein should be attached as an annexure to the monthly DO letter. Till such time, the monthly DO letter without any annexure will suffice,” he said. Somanathan asked secretaries to send the revised form of monthly DO letter to him by the 10th of each month, beginning with the letter for October due by November 10, 2024.

 

The practice of secretaries sending a monthly DO letter to the Cabinet Secretary originated with the practice of the Cabinet Secretary keeping the PM informed about significant happenings in ministries.

 

In a letter to secretaries on August 25, 1964, S S Khera, the then Cabinet Secretary, asked them to send a very brief personal note, “not more than a page” on a weekly basis—Khera suggested that it be sent every Monday—detailing the important events in their respective ministries and departments. “This is in the nature of an experiment, and much will depend upon the personal attention given to it by you,” Khera wrote six decades ago.

 

Over the years, Somanathan stated in his October 24 memo, the DO letter has undergone changes, including its periodicity, from weekly to fortnightly to monthly, as well as in its content and focus in tune with the requirements of the day. “From what was initially envisaged to be a brief personal note from the secretary, it now contains a plethora of information, data, and details which are not only voluminous but, in many cases, not serving any purpose,” he said.