Certain Procedures Governing the Flow and Handling of Correspondence

January 9, 1964 REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER NO. 06-64 SUBJECT : Certain Procedures Governing the Flow and Handling of Correspondence In order to institute an effective control of correspondence, avoid loss of papers, and eliminate unnecessary delay in their disposition, this Memorandum Order is hereby for the information, guidance, and compliance by those concerned. 1. The term "Commissioner and "Deputy Commissioner" whenever used in this Order shall mean Commissioner of Internal Revenue and Deputy Commissioner of Internal Revenue, respectively. 2. There are generally three main media by which correspondence are received, namely: by mail, by telegram or radiogram, and by personal delivery. 3. According to nature, correspondence are classified into official and personal. Official correspondence are those which pertain, concern or have any connection or bearing with the functions of the office. Personal correspondence are those the subject matter of which refers to the private or personal affairs of the addressee. The nature of closed correspondence may be determined preliminarily from the envelopes, thus: correspondence contained in official government envelopes and addressed officially (Name of incumbent official not mentioned) are classified as official; whereas, correspondence contained in private envelopes and personally addressed (with mention of the incumbent official) are classified as private or personal. Notwithstanding the kind of envelope and the manner of address, the real nature, whether official or personal, of correspondence shall be finally determined by its contents. A letter contained in a private envelope and personally addressed to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue or Deputy Commissioner of Internal Revenue, shall be reclassified as official if the contents thereof are official in character and, conversely, a letter contained in an official envelope and officially addressed to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue or Deputy Commissioner of Internal Revenue, shall be reclassified as personal if its contents have no bearing with the functions of the office. As thus finally classified, correspondence shall be routed in accordance with the procedure outlined in this Order. 4. The following rules shall govern the routing and distribution of correspondence: a. All correspondence, including telegrams and radiograms, addressed personally to the Commissioner whether in private or government envelopes, shall be opened by the Senior Executive Assistant to the Commissioner. Those addressed personally to the Deputy Commissioner shall be opened by his Senior Executive Assistant. Those which, after opening, are found to be official in nature shall be sent to the General Services Division, Administrative Services Department, for assignment to the proper action units. b. All official correspondence addressed to the Commissioner, the Deputy Commissioner or the Revenue Operations Head shall be opened by the General Services Division which shall assign them to the proper divisions or units. Those which, after opening, are found to be personal or private in character, shall be sent directly to the addressee. c. All correspondence left with the Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner shall be gathered by their respective confidants who shall hand them over to the Senior Executive Assistants who, in turn, shall assign the same to the proper divisions or units for action. d. Those addressed to the Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner marked "Personal", "Confidential" or "Secret", shall, irrespective of the real nature of the correspondence, be sent directly to their corresponding confidants; others with such marks shall be sent directly to the addressees. aisadc 5. There shall be separate rubber stamps in the Commissioner's or Deputy Commissioner's Office to be used in stamping the date and time of receipt of correspondence personally delivered to them. Similarly, all departments, divisions and other primary units, whenever possible, shall have their own rubber stamps to indicate the date and time of receipt of correspondence in their respective divisions or units. 6. The following rules shall be followed in the handling of correspondence, action on which is being taken: a. Correspondence addressed to the Commissioner or the Deputy Commissioner which are usually acknowledged by telegram shall be so acknowledged by the Commissioner or the Deputy Commissioner, as the case may be, and shall be prepared for his signature if the nature of the case requires his personal attention otherwise the same may be prepared for the signature of the Revenue Operations Head concerned. b. Upon receipt of correspondence, the action units shall prepare the necessary action and send the correspondence with the action to the official authorized to sign the prepared action in accordance with existing office practices. c. In other cases where a correspondence, the action on which according to existing practice is to be signed by the Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner, the action units shall prepare a memorandum for the Commissioner or the Deputy Commissioner, as the case may be, explaining the action. 7. All correspondence, except as otherwise provided in this Order, with duly signed action shall be released only through the Records Control Section. Important and policy-making or precedent-setting actions may, at the discretion of the signing officials, be returned to the units which prepared the action for their information and guidance, but the same shall nevertheless be released through the Records Control Section. No correspondence shall be released personally to interested parties, except recommendations or letters to be handcarried by the bearers, as well as confidential and other matters that the Commissioner or the Deputy Commissioner may otherwise authorize to be so released. 8. Classified Papers . Generally, all official papers shall be treated as confidential in the sense that they may not be handled or perused by outside parties prior to their release to persons duly authorized to receive the delivery of said papers. Among official correspondence, however, there are some which even employees in the Offices of the Commissioner or the Deputy Commissioner are not supposed to handle or read except those expressly so authorized. Such papers are those involving secret and confidential matters. Classification of papers as confidential may, in addition to the Commissioner, the Deputy Commissioner, and the Senior Executive Assistants, be made by the chief of the action unit with respect to papers being handled in said unit. The following rules shall be observed in the handling of confidential papers: a. Correspondence classified as confidential shall be stamped "CONFIDENTIAL" in bold, conspicuous letters on the top page thereof, in addition, such correspondence shall be placed under a cover-sheet similarly stamped with the word "CONFIDENTIAL", also in bold letters, below the letterhead, and underneath it shall be printed the following injunction: "To be handled only by authorized persons in accordance with Revenue Memorandum Order No. 6-64 dated January 9, 1964, violation of which is administratively punishable." The cover-sheet shall also indicate the official where the paper is coming from, through whom it is to be coursed, if any, and to whom it is destined. b. Confidential correspondence shall not be carried by or entrusted to anybody, including employees in the Office of the Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner, except those who may be so expressly authorized by the Commissioner, the Deputy Commissioner, or the chief of the action unit concerned, and shall always be placed under a cover-sheet described above. c. Confidential correspondence for release shall, except as may be directed otherwise, be released by the Senior Executive Assistant for the Commissioner or the Senior Executive Assistant for the Deputy Commissioner, as the case may be, or by those who may be expressly entrusted therewith by the Commissioner or the Deputy Commissioner, as the case may be, who shall personally release the same. The records thereof shall be kept in a separate file in the office concerned which shall at all times be under lock and key. 9. All orders or provisions of orders inconsistent with this Order are hereby superseded or modified. cdll 10. This Memorandum Order takes effect immediately. (SGD.) BENJAMIN N. TABIOS Acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue