FUNCTIONS OF VARIOUS GRADES OF OFFICERS

(1) Secretary:- Secretary is the head of the Secretariat of the Commission and assists the Commission in discharge of its constitutional obligations. Being Administrative Head, Secretary is vested with maximum administrative/financial powers. He holds independence and responsibility in respect of all the business falling under the Administrative Wing/

(2) Additional Secretary:- AS(AAGS) is second-in-command in the Administration Wing. To ensure that the volume of work at the level of Secretary remains within manageable limits, AS(AAGS) is vested with Administrative/financial powers to dispose of Govt. business in administration at his level. He also functions as the Financial Adviser of the UPSC. However, in complicated cases and the ones which do not fall under the purview of his authority, he obtains the orders of Secretary.

(3) Joint Secretary:- JS(A) is in-charge of the entire Administration Division. He is responsible for the maximum disposal of work in the Administration. Accordingly, he has been vested with Administrative/Financial powers to the extent so that he may ordinarily be able to dispose off majority of cases at his level. However, he may use his discretion in taking orders of Additional Secretary/Secretary in matters of importance and complicated cases.

(4) Deputy Secretary :- Deputy Secretary (Admn) is an officer who acts as an intermediary officer between JS and US. He is responsible for the disposal of Government business dealt within his powers under FR/SR. He ordinarily disposes of majority of the cases relating to Group ‘C’ and ‘D’ officers. He is vested with Administrative/Financial powers under FR/SR. He uses his discretion in taking orders of the Joint Secretary on more important cases.

(4) Under Secretary:- Under Secretary (Admn) is in charge of Admn.I/II/III/V Sections and exercises control both in regard to the despatch of business and maintenance of discipline. Work comes to him direct from the sections under his charge. As Branch Officer he disposes of as many cases as possible on his own responsibility, but he takes the orders of Deputy Secretary or higher officer on important cases.

(5) Section Officer :-

(A) General duties:-

(i) Distribution of work among the staff as evenly as possible – that is one Assistant should not be overloaded while the other is idle;

(ii) Training, helping and advising the staff;

(iii) Management and co-ordination of the work;

(iv) Maintenance of order and discipline in the section;

(v) Maintenance of a list of residential address of the Staff.

(B) Responsibilities relating to Dak:-

(i) to go through the receipts;

(ii) to submit receipts which should be seen by the Branch Officer or higher officers at the dak stage;

(iii) to keep a watch on any hold-up in the movement of dak; and

(iv) to scrutinize the section diary one a week to know that it is being properly maintained.

(i) to see that the draft is letter-perfect, i.e. all corrections have been made before it is marked for issue;

(ii) to indicate whether a clean copy of the draft is necessary;

(iii) to indicate the number of spare copies required;

(iv) to check whether all enclosures are attached;

(v) to indicate priority marking;

(vi) to indicate mode of despatch.

(D) Responsibility for efficient and expeditious disposal of work and checks on delays :-

(i) to keep a note of important receipts with a view to watching the progress of action;

(ii) to ensure timely submission of arrear and other returns;

(iii) to undertake inspection of Assistants’ tables to ensure that no paper or file has been overlooked;

(iv) to ensure that cases are not held up at any stage;

(v) to go through the list of periodical returns every week and take suitable action on items requiring attention during next week.

(E) Independent disposal of cases:-

He should take independently action on the following types:-

(i) issuing reminders;

(ii) obtaining or supplying factual information of a non-classified nature;

(iii) any other action which a Section Officer is authorised to take independently.

(F) Duties in respect of recording and indexing:-

(i) to approve the recording of files and their classification;

(ii) to review the recorded file before destruction;

(iii) to order and supervise periodic weeding of unwanted spare copies;

(iv) ensuring proper maintenance of registers required to be maintained in the Section.

(G) Ensuring proper maintenance of reference books, Office Orders, etc., and keep them up-to-date .

(H) Ensuring neatness and tidiness in the Section.

(I) Dealing with important and complicated cases himself.

(J) Ensuring strict compliance with Departmental Security Instructions.

(6) Assistant/ Upper Division Clerk:- He works under the orders and supervision of the Section Officer and is responsible for the work entrusted to him.

Where the line of action on a case is clear or clear instructions have been given by the Branch Officer or higher officers, he should put up draft without much noting. In other cases he will put up a note keeping in view the following points:-

(i) to see whether all facts as are open to check have been correctly stated;

(ii) to point out any mistakes or mis-statements of the facts;

(iii) to draw attention where necessary to precedents or Rules and Regulations on the subject;

(iv) to put up the Guard file, if necessary, and supply other relevant facts and figures;

(v) to bring out clearly the question under consideration and suggest a course of action wherever possible.

(7) Private Secretary/ Personal Assistant/ Stenographer:- He should keep the officer free from the worries of a routine nature by mailing correspondence, filing papers, making appointments, arranging meetings and collecting information. He should be skilled in human relations. An Officer has to depend on his personal Assistant for routine jobs so as to have more time to devote himself to the work in which he has specialised. The Personal Assistant should earn the trust of his officer for being entrusted with confidential and secret papers. He is the keeper of secrets and an Assistant to the boss. He should be popular with the persons who come in contact with his boss officially or who are helpful to his boss or who have dealings with the boss as professional men.

Some of the more specific functions are enumerated below -

(i) Taking dictation in shorthand and it transcription in the best manner possible.

(ii) Fixing up of appointments and if necessary cancelling them.

(iii) Screening the telephone calls and the visitors in a tactful manner.

(iv) Keeping an accurate list of engagements, meetings, etc., and reminding the officer sufficiently in advance for keeping them up.

(v) Maintaining in proper order the papers required to be retained by the officer.

(vi) Keeping a note of the movement of files, passed by his officer and other officers, if necessary .

(vii) Destroying by burning the stenographic record of the confidential and secret letters after they have been typed and issued.

(viii) Carrying out the corrections to the officer’s reference books.

(ix) Relieving the boss of much of his routine work and generally assisting him in such a manner as he may direct.

(8) Lower Division Clerk :- Lower Division Clerks are ordinarily entrusted with work of routine nature, for example – registration of Dak, maintenance of Section Diary, File Register, File Movement Register, Indexing and Recording, typing, comparing, despatch, preparation of arrears and other statements, supervision of correction of reference books, and submission of routine and simple drafts, etc.

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