The Australian federal police has conceded it gave incorrect information to the Senate when it said it had briefed the then home affairs minister Peter Dutton on a foreign bribery investigation in Nauru offshore contracts.
The allegations relate to a series of accommodation contracts on Nauru given to a company, Radiance International Inc, linked to an Australian citizen, Mozammil (Mozu) Gulamabbas Bhojani, who was later convicted of bribing politicians on Nauru.
The contracts, totalling more than $30m, related to providing hotel rooms on Nauru to support Australia’s offshore immigration processing regime on the island.
The AFP was asked in Senate estimates this year: “prior to … September 2018 [when Bojani signed Radiance International Inc’s final contract with the home affairs department], did the AFP inform the minister for home affairs, Peter Dutton, or his office that it was investigating Mr Bhojani and Radiance International Inc for foreign bribery?”
The AFP provided the following reply in a written response: “The AFP acting commissioner provided a verbal briefing on the investigation to the then minister for home affairs on or around 12 July 2018.”
However, Dutton consistently said he was never briefed on the Bhojani matter, saying he had checked his records and had found nothing.
And in a subsequent Senate estimates appearance Friday morning, the AFP conceded its answer was wrong.
“That is not correct,” Neil Gaughan, an ACT chief police officer, told the Senate under questioning from the Liberal senator James Paterson.
“I was actually at the meeting with a number of other individuals. I confirm that a briefing on foreign bribery matter (sic) was undertaken with the then minister for home affairs on the 12th of July 2018.
“However, I note that after a recent release of a question on notice from the AFP, which you’ve alluded to, there has been some misreporting and commentary that Mr Dutton was informed by the AFP that a then person of interest Mozammil Bhojani or company Radiance International was under investigation. To be clear, that is not correct.”
Paterson asked Gaughan: “When did you first become aware that the answer that the AFP gave on notice was not correct?”
Gaughan replied: “When we did a further search of our records and ascertain[ed] that look, putting in keywords such as Nauru, we became aware of the fact that it was incorrect.”
Reece Kershaw, the AFP’s commissioner, told the Senate: “Mr Dutton was not briefed in relation to Radiance International or Mr Bhojani. He was briefed in relation to concerns the AFP had in relation to our overt activity impacting on the relationship with the Nauruan government.”
Gaughan said the public reportage that Dutton had been briefed was the result of “misreporting”.
The reporting, however, across numerous media outlets, reflected the AFP’s answer.
“We accept the question on notice about this matter submitted earlier should have used tighter language to avoid a misunderstanding,” Gaughan said.
The Guardian revealed in May that Radiance International Inc continued to win contracts even after Bhojani had been charged, convicted and, in 2020, sentenced to a suspended jail sentence for bribing two Nauruan politicians.
Bhojani had been under investigation since 2015. Home Affairs continued to pay money to Radiance International Inc until June 2023.
