Do you know more? Send your confidential tips to ps@canberratimes.com.au. Team briefing: Staff at the Immigration Department's national office gather to hear about its planned integration with Customs. Credit:Rohan Thomson Under the proposed restructure, staff will be able to choose from one of five career "streams": border force (enforcement officers), policy and regulation, intelligence, client services (helping the public), or enabling/support (areas such as IT and human resources). All employees will also receive regular training, including at the yet-to-be-built Australian Border Force College. However, Mr Pezzullo confirmed he planned to cut the number of senior executives he oversaw, telling staff "we must increase the span of responsibility and authority of our [senior executive service], and this will lead to greater empowerment – not just for managers but for all staff".

He did not specify how many executives would go, saying no final decisions had been made and employees would first be asked for their views on the blueprint. The two agencies presently employ about 185 SES officers. An independent review of the Immigration Department in 2012 raised many concerns about its workforce, saying its executives were "heavily risk-averse", lacked financial literary and tended to pass the buck on to others. The review also found some public servants from other agencies had low regard for Immigration's senior managers, and noted "a lack of clarity regarding accountabilities and responsibilities in many areas … people said that they were not always sure who to go to and that 'there are so many fingers in the pie that no one owns the problem' ". Mr Pezzullo told Fairfax Media on Thursday he also planned to act on the national commission of audit's finding that government agencies employed too many middle managers (executive levels 1 and 2 staff). Earlier this year, the commission, chaired by businessman Tony Shepherd, criticised the number of executive-level officers in the bureaucracy, saying "mid-level managers have comparatively few people reporting directly to them".

Mr Pezzullo said the audit report had noted that almost one in five EL2s in Immigration and almost one in six EL2s in Customs oversaw no staff. "Broader spans of control [the number of staff a manager supervises] result in better information flows, enhanced accountability, faster and more reliable communication and higher staff morale," he said. "In the new organisation we are creating, we will increase the span of control of the executive-level cohort and redesign accountabilities to empower our EL2 officers and staff." The Coalition flagged the creation of the border force before last year's election, although the new agency will not exist until July 1, 2015. The lengthy planning process contrasts starkly with the sudden, and at times fractious, merger of AusAID and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which took place less than two months after the election.