It has come to my notice that some Agencies may not be following the procedures required in relation to the deletion of a senior executive officer position and the requirement to take immediate action to remove and unattach the current occupant, regardless of whether recruitment action for a replacement position is being taken.

Sections 2 and 8 of the SES Administrators' Manual cover the deletion and retitling of SES positions, with Section 8 indicating, among other things, that ff a function has changed so significantly that the position is no longer required (and may or may not be replaced by another position) the occupant is to be removed and the position will be deleted from both Schedule 3B of the Public Sector Management Act 1988 and the Agency's establishment.

Action must therefore be taken by the Agency to delete the position from the establishment and have the occupant removed and declared an unattached officer in the public service, immediately my decision to the change to the SES establishment is received, unless I have specifically approved otherwise. Action to delete positions from Schedule 3B is coordinated by my Office. In some cases it appears that Agencies are not formally deleting positions from their establishment or removing any occupants until after recruitment action to fill any new position(s) is completed. This is contrary to policy and is not to continue.

The requirement to take formal action to unattach senior executive officers in the above circumstances was also covered in my Circular 1995-44 issued on 20 November 1995.

It would be appreciated if you would bring this information to the attention of appropriate officers within your administration.

Any inquiries may be referred to Darrel Cummings in my Office on 9228 5520 in the first instance.

KEN CRIPPS
Commissioner