ML20196J775
| ML20196J775 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 03/08/1988 |
| From: | Murley T Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| References | |
| NRRL-103, NUDOCS 8803150049 | |
| Download: ML20196J775 (7) | |
Text
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'o UNITED STATES E
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WASHINGTON, D. C. 20$55 MAR 8 1988 MEMORANDUM FOR:
All NRR Employees FROM:
Thomas E. Murley, Director Jffice of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
SUBJECT:
NRR OFFICE LETTER NO. 103, REVISION 1 HANDLING 0F CONTROLLED CORRESPONDENCE PURPOSE This Office Letter sumarizes the procedures for handling controlled correspond-This revision supersedes and replaces NRR Office Letter No. 103, dated ence.
August 3, 1987.
DEFINITIONS WITS (work item tracking system) is an automated information system designed to provide NRC offices with the capability of monitoring the status of controlled correspondence. This is accomplished by providing managers with computer gen-erated reports that identify and track all work items. All NRR controlled cor-respondence is entered into the WITS.
Priority green tickets are assigned by the Office of the Executive Director for Operations (EDO) to correspondence that is designated to receive high priority attention (e.g.,substantiveCongressional, State,andFederalinquiries; letters to be prepared for the Chairman's signature; requests from the Comission; re-sponses to the NRC Office of Inspector and Auditor; and other significant and time-sensitiveitems). Priority green tickets are generally due in less than 10 work days.
Green tickets are assigned by the Office of the EDO for correspondence to receive special attention including mail addressed to the Chairman, Comissioners, or ED0; 10 CFR 2.206 petitions; and correspondence from Congressional constituents.
Green ticket items usually have a 10-work-day response date.
In general, priority green / green ticket items
- include all correspondence to the Chairman, Comissioners, and the EDO including memoranda to the EDO from the Chairman or a Comissioner.
- Priority green ticket and green ticket items may also be referred to as 1
"principal correspondence."
h CONTACT:
I i b D. Mossburg, PMAS/NRR
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49-21281 8803150049 880300
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7 PDR ORG NRRD
MAR s 1988 All NRR Employees..
A>propriate action green tickets are EDO actions assigned to NRR correspondence t1at might or might not require a written reply. A cover sheet is placed on the "appropriate action" and forwarded to the responsible division with a request for confirmation of action and due date.
This cover sheet is to be returned to the NRR mailroom within 3 work days. When it is determined a reply is appropriate, a 3 week due date is placed on the ticket unless a shorter time is specified.
If the assignee determines that no response is required, the NRR mailroom personnel should be so notified and the original green ticket package returned.
This will close out the action.
Yellow tickets are NRR office-level requests for action within NRR's area of re-sponsibility, either from within or outside of NRC, addressed to the NRR Director, or other NRR personnel. NRR mailroom personnel (pMAS/PMSB) normally establish a due date for yellow ticket items at 3 weeks from receipt in the NRR mailroom un-less some other date is specified in the incoming request.
EDO WITS items generally are long term actions assigned directly by the EDO or by a connissioner's Office through the EDO. These actions usually are in the form of memoranda from the Office of the Secretary (Chilk memoranda).
They are identified by a numbering system that uses the current year followed by a zero and the assigned number, e.g., 860123.
For each such EDO-assigned item, the E00's office enters the description, suspense date, and other supporting infor-mation into the WITS.
No slip priority tasks are normally tracked through the EDO WITi, Any axtension requests for these items must be requested by a memorandum from the EDO to the Commission at least 10 work days in advance of the due date. Sufficient justi-fication must be provided in the memorandum for the Comission to determine whether the delay should be authorized. The ED0's office advises NRR by memo-randum as to those tasks so designated by the Commission. They are not to be confused with priority green ticket items.
RESPONSIBILITIES AND AUTHOR 11IES Office of the Executive Director for Operations (EDO). The Administrative and Correspondence Branch, EDO, is responsible for designating priority green / green ticket items or EDO WITS items and forwarding them to NRR for handling. This Branch is responsible for forwarding green ticket items dealing with 10 CFR 2.206 petitions directly to the Office of General Counsel (OGC) for initial re-view (see NRR Office Letter No. 600 for additional guidance on 2.206 petitions).
Director, NRR. The Director, NRR, ensures that the staff meets the established due dates. Minor adjustments may be acceptable but repeated delays of the same task and requests for lengthy extensions of time are not normally allowed.
Associate Director /NRR Deputy Director. The appropriate Associate Director or the NRR Deputy Director must approve all due date changes.
NRR policy on due date changes for green ticket items is that the assigned division may request a change to the original due date from the appropriate Associate Director or the NRR Deputy Director within 3 work days of receipt. Requests to revise the orig-inal due date of a yellow ticket item must be made within 5 work days of receipt of action. Due date change requests must be approved by the ED0's Office for
VAR S 1988 All NRR Employees ~
all controlled actions, except for yellow tickets, before the change can be effected.
NRR mailroom personnel will coordinate all due date changes. A due date changed and approved in this manner is considered the "new current due date," which is then used as the basis for determining timeliness of the re-sponse. The original due date is not changed and is not considered in tracking timeliness. Priority green ticket due dates are not permitted to slip except in the most extraordinary circumstances.
PMAS/PMSB (the NRR mailroom): PMAS/PMSB mailroom determines responsibility for controlled correspondence, assigned actions and a)propriate due dates.
Upon request, the mailroom staff revises due dates wit 1 prior approval from the Asso-ciate Director /NRR Deputy Director and transfers assigned controlled corresoond-ence.
EDO actions assigned to NRR and NRR-assigned items are tracked and reviewed for accuracy and format prior to being submitted to the NRR Director for concur-rence/ signature.
The Assignee Status Report is prepared for division / office up-dating and the Correspondence Summary Report is prepared for management informa-tion. After items have been signed and dispatched, the mailroom staff closes 1
i out assigned actions for the office.
DIVISION DIRECTORS. Assign a Division Correspondence Coordinator.
Division Correspondence Coordinator. The Division Correspondence Coordinator receives assigned correspondence for the division / office and forwards the incom-ing item, after management review, to the appropriate branch / person to complete action. The Division Correspondence Coordinator has the responsibility of ensur-ing action items get assigned to branches expeditiously. When division manage-ment review for assignment may cause delays, concurrent copies should be sent to the branch (es) most likely to receive the assignment. The weekly Assignee Status Report is coordinated and updated and management is alerted to potential slippage problems.
Final packages are reviewed for proper format and typographical errors prior to being submitted to the NRR mailroom personnel.
Assigned Staff Member and Division. The assigned staff member and his/her man-J agement are responsible for determining whether OGC concurrence is required on the assigned controlled correspondence item by using the guidance contained in this Office Letter.
1 BASIC REOUIREMENTS i
Each controlled correspondence item received by NRR is screened by PMAS/PMSB (the NRR mailroom personnel) to determine responsibility for the reply, Assigned actions are given to the appropriate division / office Correspondence Coordinator i
within 1 work day of receipt in NRR; priority items within 3 work hours.
In order to meet schedules, all controlled correspondence must be in the hands of the per-son responsible for preparing the response within one work day of receipt by the Correspondence Coordinator. When the turnaround times are short, actions should be hand-carried through the process rather than mailed. Priority actions should
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be hand-carried in all cases.
Occasionally the responsibility for a controlled correspondence action will need to be transferred. Requests for transfer should be made to the NRR mailroom within 1 work day of receipt of the action, because such a transfer usually does not relieve the deadline date.
W 8 1988 All NRR Employees..
Tracking Tracking begins with the original assignment of controlled correspondence to NRR and subsequently to the appropriate division and ends when mailroom personnel are provided a copy of the response.
Therefore, the mailroom (Attention:
D. Mossburg, Ticket No.
) should be on distribution for all responses to ticketed actions.
Several types of reports can be generated from the WITS. The most frequently used are the Assignee Status Reports and the Open Items Report. The Assignee Status Report contains all actions due within 31 days of the date of the report.
It is provided to the Correspondence Coordinators for review and updating weekly, usu-ally at the beginning of each week. All information on each item should be re-viewed and updated as necessary with a concise, self-explanatury, current status added. After providing all pertinent information, the Correspondence Coordinators must return the marked-up report to the NRR mailroom personnel for final review and updating. The Open Items Report is given to the Correspondence Coordinator for each division / office for information. This report contains all actions within each division / office regardless of the due date. The Correspondence Summary Re-port is issued to all the Directors every Friday and contains a listing of items past due and due during the coming week.
Handling Controlled Correspondence The following actions should be taken to assist in meeting the scheduled deadlines for controlled correspondence.
1.
Immediately upon receipt of an action, the assignee should review the docu-ment for needed concurrence and input from other branches, divisions or offices. The assignee is responsible for getting such concurrence or input within the allotted time given to complete the action.
2.
All responses, startinn with the first draf t, should be typed on word pro-ces;ir.g equipment (e.g., 5520 or Displaywriter) and should receive the ap-propriate priority ict typing.
Conflict with other priority work should be resolved at the Division Director level, if necessary.
3.
Limit the nutr.ber of concurrences on the response to the minimum necessary.
OGC concurrence should be sought only when required by the nature of the response. As a rule. OGC concurrence would be required only on items that involve (1) legal interpretations of the regulations, (2) correspondence from intervenors or relating to an active proceeding, and (3) a 2.206 petition.
OCG concurrence should be obtained promptly. As time permits, OGC's concur-rence should be obtained after the Division Director's concurrence and before the Office Director's concurrence.
However, when timely completion of a response is necessary, OGC should be given the item for review while it is being reviewed by others on the concurrence chain.
If the item for review is a priority green / green ticket iten it should be hand-carried to the OGC mailroom, MS 15-B-18. OGC mailroom personnel will log in the item and des-ignate it for expedited review (2 days).
No additional justification for the expedited review is necessary because the E00 has already assigned an expedited response date to the item.
If OGC has not concurred within the
MAR 8 108 All NRR Employees allotted tine, the responsible NRR staff member should proceed without OGC concurrence, noting on the concurrence sheet the date the document was sub-mitted to the OGC mailroom. The assigned staff member should not miss the deadline for the priority green / green ticket item or other controlled cor-respondence because OGC concurrence has not been obtained.
4.
Concurrence should be acted on promptly by each concurree and should not be permitted by the assignee to take more than I work day at any level without valid reason.
If concurrence cannot be obtained within that time because of the unavailability of the person involved, that concurrence level may be waived, a notation to that effect entered on the concurrence line, and the package taken to the next person for concurrence.
5.
Green and priority tickets as well as Comission correspondence require editorial review by the Technical Editors prior to submittal to the NRR mailroom.
6 Where necessary to ensure a timely completion of the response, copies of the proposed response should be routed for simultaneous, rather than serial, review and concurrence.
If possible, provide the NRR mailroom personnel a draft o' the proposed response for review.
7.
Any controlled correspondence action that can be resolved by a telephone call should be handled in that manner. The responsible person should then describe on the ticket the action taken and return it to the NRR mailroom personnel in lieu of a response memorandum or letter.
8.
Each division must establish and implement procedures and responsibilities to ensure that each package is thoroughly reviewed for administrative-type errors. The Division Director should designate an individual who will be responsible for reviewing final packages for administrative errors (e.g.,
typographical, fonnat, and number of copies). All packages must be delivered directly to the NRR mailroom personnel so that they can be properly logged, reviewed, and tracked.
Controlled Correspo_ndence perfonnance Measurement To ensure timely completion of controlled action items, they are continuously tracked and each division is given a quarterly report on action item completion.
An action item will be considered to be completed on time by the assignee if it is delivered to the NRR mailroom personnel at least 3 work days in advance for green tickets and WITS items and 2 work days before the due date for yellow tickets. The due date is either the "original due date" or the "current due date" which has been requested and approved in accordance with the above proce-dures. The following delays will not alter the due date:
1.
If the package must be returned to the originator to correct typographical, format or other administrative-type errors found in the course of PMSB (the mailroom)/ Director's Office review, the action is not considered complete until the package is returned to the NRR mailroom free of such errors.
Therefore, a package initially submitted on time could end up being late because of errors.
\\
HAR 8 1988 k
All NRR Employees,
2.
If the package is returned to the originator for further work following technical /progransnatic review by the Director's Office and, because of this, it leaves NRR after the due date, the action will be considered late even though it might have been originally delivered to the NRR mailroom within the required lead time.
NRR is committed to ensuring that controlled correspondence actions are completed on schedule and with high quality responses.
Suggestions for improvements in processing policies and procedures are welcome at any time. Questions regarding controlled correspondence should be directed to the NRR mailroom personnel.
EFFECTIVE DATE This Office Letter revision is effective irmediately.
original signed by, no asE. W rley Thomas E. Murley, Director Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation cc: See next page Distribution Central Files PDTSS Rdg MMiller HSmith SBlack CThomas FGillespie TMurley DMossburg
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cc:
V. Stello, EDO MNBB-6209 J. Taylor, EDO MNBB-6209 S. Ebneter, OSP 7-D-4 B. Hayes. 0!
3-E-4 J. Lieberman, OE 7-H-5 W. McDonalt, ARM MNBB-6201 P. Bird, OP W-40/
J. McDermott, OP W-407 P. Cotter, ASBLP EW-439 A. Rosenth61, ASLAP EW-525 E. Jordan, AEOD MNBB-3302 C. Heltemes, AEOD MNBB-3302 H. Thompson, NMSS 6-A-4 R. Berrierc, HMSS 6-A-4 M. Knapp, NMSS 5-E-4 J. Greeves, NMSS 5-E-4 R. Browning, NMSS 4-H-3 M. Bell, NMSS 4-H-3 R. Burnett, NMSS 4-E-4 E. Ten Eyck, NMSS 4-E-4 R. Cunningham, NMSS 6-H-3 G, Sjoblom, NMS3 6-H-3 E. Beckford, RES NL-007 B. Sheron, RES NL-007 W. Minners RES NL-007 B. Morris, RES NL-007 Z. Rosztoczy, RES NL-007 G. Arlotto, RES NL-007 R. Bosnak, RES NL-007 W. Houston, RES NL-007 H. Denton, GPA H-1013 S. Connelly, O!A EWS-461 W. Ruisell R-I J. Grace R-II A. Davis R-III R. Martin R-IV J. Martin R-V SECY H-1149 OGC H-1035 OGC 15-B-1B NRC PDR j
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