F-554: Spanial (Docked at Mundo Zargo Highport), Common Area

Let us consider the table of Bureaucratic ranks, original found here, to which I have added some commentary in the grey boxes:

Administrative Band

The Administrative Band are the low-level workers who undertake the necessary tasks to make the bureau function.  They come in all shapes and sizes – in the Agricultural Bureau, for example, a farm hand could well be employed as a Technician Grade 1;  Jaylene Fok-Bollyn, the fashion reporter that Lia met at the party at Mundo Zargo Highport, is probably a high-grade Specialist in the Communications Bureau.

Administrative Stream

• Administrative
  Grades 1 to 10

Technical Stream

• Technician
  Grades 1 to 10

Specialist Stream

• Specialist
  Grades 1 to 10

Senior Band

The Senior Band are middle managers, responsible for organising work teams and getting routine work programs completed, also for anticipating and responding to routine issues and providing input, but not determining, policy and strategic objectives.  Eleric Dragoult, another person that Lia met at the party, was a Senior Administrator Grade P. 

Administrative Stream

• Senior Administrator
  Grades D – T – B – P

Technical Stream

• Senior Technician
  Grades D – T – B – P

Specialist Stream

• Senior Specialist
  Grades D – T – B – P

Executive Band

• Undercrat Grades 1 – 2 – 3

Responsible for a significant policy or delivery area within a Bureau on a single world or installation.  More senior Undercrats may have responsibilites across a system or larger if they are working in Octant or Bureau headquarters.  Lower grade Undercrats may report to higher-grade Undercrats or direct to a more senior bureaucrat, depending on local arrangements.  Lia’s client, Aston, is an Undercrat Grade 3 with unspecified responsibilities inside the Trade Bureau.  Lia has heard that Adler Zang, head of the Resources Bureau on Mundo Zargo, is an Undercrat Grade 2 who has been acting in the Local Overcrat role. The Bureaucracy representative on the MaPaCoA governing board that Oliver had lunch with was an Undercrat Grade 2.

• Local Overcrat

A Local Overcrat is responsible for the operations of a single Bureau within a single system.  As the head of the Agriculture Bureau in the Mundo Zargo system, Zayaire is a Local Overcrat.  

• Octant Overcrat

An Octant Overcrat will be responsible for the operations of a single Bureau across an entire Octant.  Octant Overcrats are headquartered on the Capital world and system of their Octant.

• Overcrat

The Overcrat of a Bureau is responsible for the activities of the Bureau across the entire Dominion, they are headquartered on Zargonia and Overcrats of even the smallest Bureaus can wield considerable administrative power.

• [Codex Prescribed Office]†

The Codex prescribes a number of offices to be held by individuals to carry out certain functions.  Each Codex Prescribed Officer has a unique title as defined in the Codex.  A Codex Prescribed Officer may also be the head of a Bureau – equivalent to an Overcrat in responsibilities – that assists in the carrying out of those duties, or they may not.

Secretariat Band

• Junior Secretary

Junior Secretaries are the lowest level of political governance that requires its own organisational unit, whatever that might be.  For example, Assistant Secretaries and higher members of the Secretariat band  will have at least one Junior Secretary assigned to assist them in carrying out their duties. 

• Assistant Secretary

Assistant Secretaries sit on the Governing Councils of worlds.  Sometimes a smaller facility operated by the Bureaucracy will be run by an Assistant Secretary (usually titled the Local Governor).  Assistant Secretary Namasia Markov-Wrikster was of this classification.

• Governor^‡

Governors have responsibility for ruling a single planet or major facility.  The Governor of a system’s Mainworld also has some say in system operations.  Mundo Zargo’s current Governor Haugh is apparently in the process of leaving to take up a position on the Octant 7 Secretariat. 

• Under Secretary

Under Secretaries perform a similar function at the Octant level as Junior Secretaries or Assistant Secretaries at planetary levels.  However, Under Secretaries do not sit on the Octant Secretariat.

• Secretary

A Secretary sits on one of the nine Octant Secretariats.  Unlike almost every other manifestation of the Dominion’s love of individual command-and-control hierarchies, there is no one person in control of an Octant; the Secretaries of the Secretariat now rule jointly. 

† Holders of Prescribed Offices are not subject to the seniority of the Secretariat with regard to powers and performance of duties Prescribed in the Codex. 

^‡ Governor is a specific role sometimes considered equivalent to its own stream within the Secretariat Band.  However, while the same number or letter grades are considered equivalent in the other streams, Governor has a designated position of seniority between Assistant Secretary and Under Secretary.  In the climb up the greasy pole of bureaucratic seniority, most will jump directly from Assistant- to Under Secretary, and it is common for an Under Secretary to take on a Governorship.  Governors are also sometimes promoted from Overcrat positions. 

In answer to the specific question, Local Overcrat Zayaire Preston-Lischost is the most senior member of the Agriculture Bureau on Mundo Zargo.  It seems likely he would need to authorise closure of a major Agricultural Bureau installation.  Though it’s possible he might be subject to the dictates of the Legion or the Governor if it was a major security issue or disaster.