Australia’s passport office under scrutiny after damning audit accused department of mishandling contracts worth millions of dollars
Australia’s passport office has been accused of mishandling contracts worth millions of dollars, while more than a dozen officials are being investigated for possible misconduct.
The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has accused the country’s passport office of breaching financial laws in a damning audit released this week.
The report details serious problems with the department’s handling of procurement contracts worth more than $1.5 billion between 2019 and 2023, including the cancellation of a conference in a popular tourist destination at a cost of $135,000.
The Department of State (DFAT) was found to have failed to comply with federal procurement rules by allegedly failing to declare conflicts of interest and failing to be ‘competitive’ or ‘transparent’ in decision-making.
DFAT is now investigating at least 18 individuals, both employees and contractors, in connection with the passport agency’s procurement activities.
Some of the more alarming findings include four officials spending more than $30,000 on two trips to Port Douglas in northern Queensland in late 2022 and February 2023 to inspect it as a potential venue for a major conference.
The meeting was moved to Canberra, with taxpayers charged more than $104,000 in “cancellation fees and a non-refundable deposit paid to a Port Douglas resort”.
“The purchase of a resort in Port Douglas did not meet the requirements of DFAT’s procurement policy and did not provide value for money,” the Auditor-General said in the report.
The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has accused the Australian Passport Office (APO) of mishandling contracts, including canceling a conference in tourist hotspot Port Douglas (pictured) at a cost of $135,000, in a bombshell audit that was released this week
In another case, an APO official had a cup of coffee with a Deloitte employee to discuss a potential contract.
The resulting documents were allegedly falsified and claimed to be an ‘unsolicited proposal’ from Deloitte.
The cost of the contract reportedly fell by almost 1,000 percent in 30 months to more than $3.5 million.
‘The [DFAT] The approval report incorrectly stated that Deloitte had “made an unsolicited proposal,” the report said.
In response to the audit, Deloitte said the cumulative impact of the contract breach was more than $1.1 million, not $3.5 million.
Assistant Secretary of State Tim Watts said: “The Albanian government is taking these issues very seriously and is investigating further.”
“Since the election of the Albanian government, we have been supporting the Australian Passport Office in making long-awaited improvements to its internal systems and processes to ensure it can efficiently deliver services to Australians.
‘The government will consider any further action to be taken in response.’
Following the report, DFAT said it has accepted a series of recommendations, while the Passport Office has implemented steps to ‘address procurement and cultural issues’.