Labor has announced an independent review of the management of regional processing procurement by the Department of Home Affairs after revelations it granted contracts to a company linked to the subject of a bribery investigation.
The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, announced the inquiry citing “serious issues” with the governance of offshore processing contracts which she said “merit detailed and thorough examination”.
Last week the Australian federal police said it had verbally briefed Peter Dutton in July 2018 that it was investigating Mozammil Gulamabbas Bhojani and Radiance International for foreign bribery. Radiance won contracts from the department for accommodation in Nauru in August 2018.
On Monday Dutton said it is “complete nonsense” to suggest he had any role in relation to the contracts, denying any memory of the briefing and proposing a bipartisan corruption referral to investigate the issue.
The opposition leader claimed he was caught in “crossfire” between the home affairs minister and her departmental secretary, Michael Pezzullo, over the issue of procurement for offshore detention.
Dutton said he would be “happy to cooperate” with any independent inquiry, but labelled it a “complete stunt” to order an inquiry without considering procurement as far back as 2012.
The review will be conducted by Dennis Richardson, a former secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Department of Defence. According to O’Neil, the review “will consider governance practices and these allegations in the wider context of serious issues that have emerged over many years” but will not canvass the policy of regional processing itself.
The inquiry has broad terms of reference, which include “any integrity concerns” about contracting, the department’s governance arrangements and “any other related concerns” about regional processing administration.
The review will be able to make referrals of matters to appropriate authorities for further investigation where necessary.
Earlier, Dutton told reporters in Canberra that his office didn’t have “any record” of having received a briefing from the AFP and he had no memory of it “at all”.
Regardless, Dutton said it would be “inconsequential even if a briefing was provided” because the contracts were managed by the department.
Dutton said that departments receive briefings from law enforcement agencies including the AFP and “if departments make decisions around procurement or enter into agreements to purchase services from people who have been subject to investigation – that’s a matter for them”.
“Obviously the government’s playing games here. I’m very happy to cosign a letter today with the prime minister referring these matters to the integrity commission.”
Dutton said the National Anti-Corruption Commission referral should relate to “the period of 2012 when procurement arrangements were put in place”.
He said that “many of the parties who are still around contracting with home affairs” won contracts at that time, noting that Nauru was “not a big place”.
“It certainly has been [the case that] in my time as home affairs minister, you’re not involved in the procurement of these services, it’s entirely an issue for the department.
“There were no contracts that I was involved in in relation to home affairs in negotiating conditions or clauses within contracts – it’s a complete nonsense.”
Dutton accused O’Neil of being “at loggerheads with the secretary of the department”.
“If she wants to sack the secretary of the department … she should speak to the prime minister about that. Having this tit-for-tat, I feel like I’m in the crossfire of these attacks by minister O’Neil on Mr Pezzullo.”
“If the working relationship now is so dysfunctional between the minister for home affairs and the secretary, that’s an issue for the prime minister to resolve.”
Pezzullo was reappointed as home affairs department secretary by the Coalition for a five-year term in October 2019, to expire in October 2024.
The decision of Marc Ablong and Andrew Kefford, deputy secretaries close to Pezzullo, to leave the department and Labor’s appointment of Stephanie Foster to associate secretary of immigration has led to speculation the Albanese government is preparing to make a change at the top of the department.
Guardian Australia has previously reported on how the former government continued to pay millions of taxpayer dollars to a company linked to businessman convicted of corruption to provide offshore processing services on Nauru, even after he had pleaded guilty to bribing Nauruan government officials.
In August 2020, Mozammil Gulamabbas Bhojani was convicted of paying more than $120,000 in bribes to two Nauruan government officials, including an MP and government minister, for favourable deals on phosphate mining contracts for his Radiance International group of companies.
On Monday, the Greens reiterated their calls for a full royal commission, with immigration spokesperson Nick McKim warning against a “bipartisan stitch-up” of an inquiry.
