Cabinet of the Secretary General

The Secretary-General’s Cabinet is the first and last line of defense as regards all that is issued by the General Secretariat, whether signed by the Secretary-General, the Assistant Secretaries General, or any of the officials in the General Secretariat, and everything that reaches the General Secretariat from outside. It represents the security valve of the daily functioning: no document or instructions from outside the Organization reaches any of the departments of the General Secretariat except after passing through the Cabinet, and no document is issued by the General Secretariat until after it passes through the Cabinet. Interdepartmental memoranda are issued through it.

According to Rule 5 of the Internal Rules of the General Secretariat of the OIC, the Office of the Secretary General shall perform the following tasks:

1. Conference work and meetings of the Organisation and preparation of the final versions of the Secretary General’s report.

2. Follow-up and coordination of the work of Departments.

3. Coordination of work with the Subsidiary organs.

4. Follow-up and coordination of the activities of non-governmental organisations.

5. Protocol and liaison and other matters related to the privileges and immunities of the Organisation.

6. Private Secretariat.

The Cabinet directs the incoming correspondence and documents to the concerned departments and persons and informs the Secretary-General of the important ones. It also reviews all documents and correspondences issued and makes sure of the following:

1. Adherence to the rules of procedure and reference resolutions and lack of conflict with previous directives or resolutions.

2. Legal basis for any document and presence of the necessary approval from the authorized person.

3. Compliance of the documents, resolutions, correspondences, and contracts issued with the system.

4. Use of appropriate language.

5. Accuracy of the addressee's information.

6. Accuracy of numbers and dates.

7. Observation of the political sensitivity.

The Cabinet of the Secretary-General is supervised by the Director-General of the Cabinet/ Chief Adviser:

* He is the most important official after the Secretary-General and is entrusted with vast executive powers delegated to him by the Secretary-General on whose behalf he acts directly and takes important decisions regarding the work of all the Departments that fall under his direct supervision and authority, namely: Information, Legal Affairs, Conference, Information Technology, Protocol and Public Relations, and the Registry Office.

* He also supervises the external offices of the Organization, whether political (New York, Geneva, Brussels, and Baghdad), or humanitarian (Niger, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Palestine), while coordinating the work of these offices falls within the competence of the concerned departments in the General Secretariat.

* He coordinates and supervises the daily work of the Cabinet assisted by several advisers, professional and administrative officers, as well as a secretariat.

* The Cabinet also coordinates with the OIC Institutions (Subsidiary, Specialised, and Affiliated) regarding the relevant departments in the General Secretariat and ensures their compliance with the legal framework governing their work. It organizes their annual meetings. The Director-General of the Cabinet chairs several committees, notably the preparatory committee of the Summit, the annual meeting of foreign ministers, and the coordination meeting of foreign ministers on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meetings.

The Director-General of the Cabinet/ Chief Adviser supervises the departments related to the Cabinet:

* Information Department.

* Protocol Department.

* Conference Department.

* Legal Department.

* Information Technology Department.

* Registry Office.

* Internal Auditor.

* Voice of Wisdom Center.

* The ten program of work of the Organization.