Repealed Executive Order 59/26 - Deputy Secretaries: Complement and Confirmation

[xXTheoryXx]

Executive Order 59/26 - Deputy Secretaries: Complement and Confirmation​

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By the authority vested in me by the Redmont Constitution
I, Theory Fontaine, President of the Commonwealth of Redmont, do declare the following under this Executive Order:​

Whereas Const. 24(5) empowers the President to issue and revoke Executive Orders;

Whereas the President is accountable for the conduct of the executive branch and for the officers who exercise its authority;

Whereas a Deputy Secretary exercises delegated authority across a department, and in the absence of the Secretary exercises the authority of that office;

Whereas an officer exercising executive authority should hold that authority from the executive, and at present a Deputy Secretary may take office without any confirmation by the President or the Vice President;

Whereas Secretaries themselves hold office by appointment of the President, and the standard applied to the deputy who stands in a Secretary's place should not be lower than the standard applied to the Secretary;

Whereas the office of Deputy Secretary is general in nature, carrying no defined function of its own, and its cost is therefore overhead rather than output;

Whereas the Commonwealth is operating in deficit, and every standing salary carried by a department is money not spent on the programme that department exists to deliver;

Whereas departments carrying several general deputies produce duplicated oversight and unclear lines of authority, to the detriment of the officers working beneath them;

Whereas a requirement of this kind is of little worth if it binds only future appointments and leaves sitting officers outside it;
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Section 1. Purpose

1. This Order fixes a uniform limit on the number of Deputy Secretaries an executive department may carry, and establishes confirmation by the President or the Vice President as a condition of holding that office.

2. This Order is directed at the number of such offices and the manner in which they are held. It makes no finding about the conduct, performance, or fitness of any officer holding one.

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Section 2. The Complement

1. No executive department shall carry more than two Deputy Secretaries.

2. The President or the Vice President may approve in writing an additional deputy office for a department where its size or workload warrants it, and may set a period for which that approval holds.

3. A department carries an additional deputy office only for so long as an approval under subsection 2 is in force.

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Section 3. Confirmation Required

1. No person shall take office as a Deputy Secretary of an executive department unless that person has been confirmed in writing by the President or the Vice President.

2. A purported appointment to the office of Deputy Secretary that has not been confirmed under subsection 1 is of no effect.

3. No confirmation shall be given where it would carry a department beyond its complement under Section 2.

4. A Secretary shall submit a proposed appointment to the Office of the President before it is announced.

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Section 4. Sitting Deputy Secretaries

1. Within three days of this Order, each Secretary shall submit to the Office of the President, for every sitting Deputy Secretary of their department, the officer's name, the date of appointment, and the duties assigned to them.

2. Within seven days of this Order, the President or the Vice President shall confirm or decline each sitting Deputy Secretary.

3. Where a department carries more sitting Deputy Secretaries than its complement, confirmations shall be made in order of appointment, the earliest appointed first, until the complement is filled. Officers beyond the complement are not eligible for confirmation absent an approval under Section 2(2).

4. Order of appointment is determined by the date the appointment was announced by the department.

5. A sitting Deputy Secretary who has not been confirmed at the expiry of the seventh day ceases to hold that office at that time.

6. A Secretary's failure to make a submission under subsection 1 does not extend the period in subsection 2, and the officers concerned remain subject to subsection 5.

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Section 5. Nature of Confirmation

1. Confirmation under this Order is an act of executive confidence.

2. A decision to decline confirmation, ineligibility under Section 4(3), and the lapse of an office under Section 4(5) are none of them findings of misconduct, poor performance, or unfitness, and shall not be recorded or represented as such.

3. A person whose office lapses or whose confirmation is declined may be appointed to the office again at a later time, subject to Sections 2 and 3.

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Section 6. Continuity of Service

1. No person shall be separated from a department by reason of this Order.

2. An officer whose office lapses under Section 4(5) remains an employee of the department and shall be placed by the Secretary in a position within it, with continuity of service and without break in employment.

3. Any saving arising under this Order remains within the department in which it arises and shall be applied to programme spending.

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Section 7. Fiscal Neutrality

1. This Order creates no new appropriation and authorises no new spending.

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Section 8. Interpretation

1. This Order limits a number of offices and governs how they are held. It does not diminish the standing of any person who holds one.

2. Nothing in this Order limits the ordinary authority of a Secretary to organise the staff of their department below the level of Deputy Secretary.

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Theory Fontaine
30th President of the Commonwealth of Redmont​