Our objective was to assess whether agencies have implemented suitable policies, procedures and controls for employee terminations.

Our lines of inquiry were:

Do agencies have suitable policies, procedures and controls for employee separations and have these ensured that:

• termination payments are correct?
• agency assets such as laptops, mobile phones and purchasing cards are returned prior to termination?
• access to IT systems and premises are removed prior to termination?

We tested 359 employee terminations across 10 agencies. Our testing included a range of termination types including, resignations, retirements, involuntary dismissals and voluntary redundancies. These terminations were from the 2013-14 financial year.

Two of the agencies we audited; the Department of Local Government and Communities, and Synergy, were impacted during the period by government restructuring and amalgamations. Consequently, these agencies were each running two systems and processes. In these instances, we reviewed both systems and processes, but noted that the agencies were in the process of consolidating these.

We conducted the audit in accordance with Australian Auditing and Assurance Standards.