How to Use the Administrative Guide

Getting the Job Done 

The Administrative Guide to State Government (Ad Guide) is a set of policies and procedures used by State employees in the course of conducting business. 

The Ad Guide, published and maintained in an electronic form on the DTMB public website, presents the major processes through which State government operates.

For all topics that it currently covers, the Ad Guide replaces an accumulation of former Department of Management and Budget administrative procedures, directives, office/bureau letters, circulars, and internal memoranda. It includes interagency or statewide requirements and authorizations that come from agencies other than DTMB.

How the Guide is Organized

Information in the Ad Guide is organized by types of transactions and categories of activities on which a reader may need information. For ease in referencing and searching, each category is assigned a series number.

In each category, the text consists of:

• Policies - General statements of mandated or authorized courses of action.
  Each policy has a unique (series-based) four-digit number, a descriptive title, date of issuance or latest revision in the Ad Guide, a brief summary of its provisions, and explicit statutory or other sources.
• Procedures - Specific statements of the ways in which a State agency is directed to implement one or more aspects of the respective policy.
  
  Each procedure has a unique six-digit number linked to the policy from which it derives, a descriptive title and a date of issue identifying the original issue or latest revision date, whichever is applicable.
  
  Standardized text for each procedure specifies the subject that it covers; the organizations or persons to which it applies; its purpose; the agency to be contacted for further information, with address, telephone and fax numbers; a brief summary; a list of applicable forms; and procedural steps, generally in a sequenced play script format; i.e., who does what, when and how.
  
  At the end of the entire text, additional information is provided in the Glossary.

Accuracy and Updates

The Ad Guide will be published and maintained in electronic form on the DTMB public website.  The DTMB public website is the official version of the Ad Guide.  Required and discretionary distributions and notices will be provided electronically unless otherwise required by law.

Much care has gone into ensuring the accuracy of text in the Ad Guide. Nevertheless, given the numerous subjects that are covered and their complexities, readers are advised that any information critical to their activities should be discussed with the cited contact agency.

If inaccuracies or discrepancies in the guide are uncovered, higher authority - such as the Michigan Constitution, statutes, case law, or administrative rules of the issuing agency - will prevail. To help other readers, all such instances should be reported in writing to the Director's Office, Department of Technology, Management and Budget.

Updates to the Ad Guide are to be issued periodically. They will include revised, as well as new, policies and procedures. The date in the lower right corner of each page identifies the date a procedure was released or last revised. For information on how administrative and procedural directives may be issued, modified, or rescinded, see Procedures 1010.01 and 1010.03.

Persons using the Ad Guide should be aware that all issuances that have interim or temporary applicability, but are not yet in the Ad Guide, require appropriate compliance.