Government Office Management & Secretariat Instructions

What you'll learn

• Explain how a government office is organised and how work moves through it
• Open, maintain and dispose of files correctly
• Write notes and drafts to the standard expected in government
• Apply rules on correspondence, records, meetings and delegation
• Answer office procedure questions in examinations and vivas

About this course

Government work moves on **files**. A decision is not a conversation but a documented sequence: a proposal is recorded, examined at successive levels, decided by the competent authority, communicated in writing, and filed. An officer who understands that sequence is effective from the first week; one who does not spends a year confused by a system that is actually quite logical. The rules are set out in the **Rules of Business**, the **Secretariat Instructions**, and departmental manuals and office orders. They govern who may decide what, how proposals are recorded and moved, how correspondence is drafted and issued, and how records are kept and destroyed. This course covers the whole craft: office structure, files and noting, drafting, correspondence, meetings, records, delegation, leave and service matters, and the professional habits that distinguish a competent officer. It is examined in written papers and vivas, and it is used every working day thereafter.

Course content

Who this course is for

• Government officers and candidates
• Office and administrative staff
• Anyone joining public service