Promotion relocation

THE 2005 airmen/airwomen promotion boards will be held at RAAF Base Townsville from January 24 to February 25.

This year, more than 4000 airmen and women will be considered by almost 150 separate promotion boards. To support this task, the entire PROMA staff (which is only six personnel) will relocate to Townsville to conduct Promotion Board training for board members and to coordinate candidate lists for the individual boards.

Other personnel are welcome to attend the promotion board training, which will be held each Monday morning of the five weeks of the promotion boards.

The promotion boards will be made up of three volunteers of sergeant rank or higher and will be at least one rank higher than the member being considered. Board members will not consider personnel from their own mustering or from closely aligned musterings and the one board will consider all members of a rank for a particular mustering.

In their deliberations, the promotion boards will only consider the 2002, 2003 and 2004 PARs and Supplementary Reports, as well as conduct issues for those years. Promotion boards will not consider reports before 2002 or reports raised at a different rank level. All airmen and airwomen who will have 36 months seniority as at January 1, 2006, will be presented to a promotion board.

Promotion boards do not know how many people will be promoted for each rank and mustering. The promotion board’s role is to identify those people who are considered promotable and those who are not.

The board will consider individuals on the basis of their reported performance and place them in a cohort that best reflects their performance in comparison to their peers. From this cohort allocation, PROMA staff will compile a gradation list, which lists personnel in cohort order and, within each cohort, by a descending order of merit.

When the gradation list is finalised, PROMA will draw a line at the number of promotions approved by DGPERS-AF.

Those members above this line will be identified for promotion (if there are no barriers to promotion) while those below the line will be reserves in the order in which they appear on the gradation list.

Once the promotions have been promulgated, members may seek their board comments from PROMA via an email address that will be promulgated in due course. The board comments will include: the comments made by the promotion board; the cohort the member was awarded; and the member’s position on the gradation list.

Members are encouraged to contact PROMA cell in DP-AF on (02) 6265 2329 to discuss or clarify their understanding of the comments provided.

Moonlighting peril

THE POLICY for the employment of ADF personnel in off-duty hours is contained in DI(G) PERS 25-2. Some ADF personnel have taken employment in the MEAO in contravention of this.

Members are reminded that “no member of the Permanent or Reserve Forces is to enter the armed or other service of any other government, or to undertake service with the United Nations (UN), without the specific approval of the Minister for Defence unless they are posted, seconded or loaned to that government or the UN as part of their official duties. Ministerial approval is to be sought through normal chain of command”.

The Crimes (Foreign Incursion and Recruitment) Act 1978 prohibits any person from entering a foreign country to engage in any hostile activity against the government of that country.

It also prohibits any person either in or outside Australia from taking any other action, such as training or drilling personnel, raising money or enlisting support for activities against foreign governments, or recruiting other persons for such purposes.

ADF members are not to be approved to accept off-duty employment when the activities of the civilian employer in relation to the Crimes (Foreign Incursion and Recruitment) Act 1978 are in doubt. No member of the Permanent or Reserve Forces is to be involved in any capacity with any groups or organisation involved in mercenary activities.

In addition to DI(G) PERS 25-2, a number of directives have been issued relating to travel through the Middle East.

In summary, Air Force members should not travel to or through the following countries until further notice: Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman and Yemen.

Failure to comply with these lawful orders could result in disciplinary action. If in any doubt about travel, personnel should consult their Unit Security Officer.

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