Prescribing a Routing Slip to be Attached to Every Communication Acted upon by any Unit in the Central Office

October 17, 1977 REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER NO. 54-77 SUBJECT : Prescribing a Routing Slip to be Attached to Every Communication Acted upon by any Unit in the Central Office TO : All Revenue Service Chiefs, Division Chiefs and Others Concerned 1. In order to expedite action on communications received and to pinpoint responsibility for any unwarranted delay in taking action thereon, there is hereby prescribed a Routing Slip (BIR Form No. 2309), sample enclosed, to be attached to every such communication. 2. For the purpose of this Order, the term "communication" shall be construed to include correspondence, memoranda, notes, reports, parts of tax dockets and the like. 3. Upon receipt of any communication which requires immediate action by the unit which has jurisdiction to act on the same, the person or unit taking the first or initial action thereon, shall fill up a Routing Slip to be attached thereto showing the following: cdt a. The date when the Routing Slip is originally accomplished; b. A brief statement of the subject matter of the communication to which the Routing Slip is being attached; c. The Office receiving the communication taking initial action; d. The date of receipt of such communication; e. The initial of the receiver confirming the date he received the communication; and f. The initial action taken. 4. The Routing Slip shall be prepared in two (2) copies by the initiating office, retaining the second copy for its file, and filing the same separately for reference and follow-up purposes. 5. The Unit or Units taking subsequent action on the communication shall fill up the pertinent spaces in the Routing Slip to indicate their receipt thereof, the date the same was received, the full name of the receiver and the nature of the action taken. 6. Every Service or Division shall at all times maintain a communications register book showing the date a particular communication was received, brief statement of the subject thereof, the date the same was released, the office to which it was sent and the initial and printed name of the receiver. 7. In all cases, the messenger of the forwarding unit shall see to it that the communication is acknowledged by the duly authorized receiving clerk, who shall affix his initial on the Routing Slip and his initial and printed name on the communications register book of the forwarding unit. 8. The date of release of such communication by the forwarding office shall be the date the same was received by the receiving office. 9. Communications received by the Records Division from offices or parties outside of the Central Office, whether handcarried or by mail, shall be merely date-stamped. A routing slip does not have to be attached thereto. 10. Aside from the person who actually caused the delay in the action taken on any communication, the Division Chief and the Revenue Service Chief concerned all also be held responsible for such delay. Hence, the said officials should install within their respective Divisions and Services a system of follow-up and a periodic inventory taking of pending papers in order to insure that all matters referred to them are acted upon promptly and with dispatch. 11. This Order takes effect immediately. cdta EFREN I. PLANA Acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue TAN-P4519-F2828-A-8 NOTE: This Slip must be filed with the papers to which it is attached.