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    Directives Management Process

    Please note: This process does not include Executive Orders.  Executive Orders are defined as issuances, but follow a different development and review process. For further details of this process, please contact the Governor's Office of Administration (OA), Office of Enterprise Records Management (OERM), Directives Management via email.  

    To create, amend, or rescind a management directive, manual, or administrative circular, review Management Directive 210.1: Directives Management System and follow these steps:

    1. Your agency's directives coordinator should contact OERM to initiate a proposed/amended issuance or rescission request. Please refer to Enclosure 3 of Management Directive 210.1: Directives Management System for a list of agency directives coordinators. 
    2. OERM provides a copy of the existing existing issuance, if there is one, to your agency's directives coordinator and/or point of contact as a Microsoft Word document to be amended using track changes.
    3. Your agency's directives coordinator and/or point of contact returns the issuance, showing the tracked changes,to OERM.
    4. OERM prepares the final draft by reviewing proposed issuances for authority, accuracy, impact, understanding, and completeness in the context of other agencies, other systems, and existing programs and procedures, and returns, to agency directives coordinator and/or point of contact.
    5. Your agency's directives coordinator and/or point of contact must ensure adequate review and secure appropriate agency signatures from program, policy, legal and agency head and return the approved issuance, along with the routing sheet, to OERM via email. If an issuance intersects with other agencies' areas of authority, those agencies will be asked to review for approval.
    6. Once all agency approvals are secured, OERM sends the issuance for final review for commonwealth impact to OA, Office for Human Resources and Management for human resource and labor relations impact; OA, Office for Information Technology for impact to IT resources; and Office of General Counsel for legal impact.  
    7. Once all commonwealth concerns have been addressed, a hard copy is sent to the agency's directives coordinator and/or to the point of contact for signature by the agency head.
    8. Upon its return to OERM signed, OERM will submit documentation to the Legislative Reference Bureau for publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin and the Pennsylvania Code and publish the issuance on OA's website.

    The process can stretch over several months or be completed in weeks, depending on the complexity of the changes and coordination required.