SYDNEY: The Customs Service has been planning to select their senior management ranks with very few executives guaranteed a job in the merged department.
Sources said that even customs have not confirmed the numbers of managers to be axed under the Senior Executive Service “Transition Process” but departmental insiders say about 25 executives, or 20 per cent of the department’s current SES cohort, are set to be shown the door.
“The shake-up comes as the department’s new secretary Mike Pezzullo prepares Immigration for the emergence of “Australian Border Force” which will see Immigration merged with Mr Pezzullo’s old agency Customs to create the new entity,” they added.
Senior executives at Customs earn between $147,000 and $283,000 a year although they may benefit from performance bonus payments not available to their counterparts at Immigration.
Wage disparities and cultural differences between the two agencies will be among some of the challenges to be overcome as the formation of “Border Force”, due in July 2015, draws closer.
An Immigration Department spokeswoman confirmed on Wednesday that senior executives in both her own department and Customs had been advised of the “transition”.
