US private prisons operator to be paid $790m to hold 100 people on Nauru in quiet expansion of contract

MTC’s amended contract with the Australian government to run offshore processing in Nauru will lift its value by $365m to $787m and extend it to 2027. Composite: AP/Australian government

A US private prisons operator will receive $157m a year to run Australia’s offshore processing regime in Nauru – currently holding just over 100 people – after the government quietly expanded its contract by more than $350m to three-quarters-of-a-billion dollars.

The two-year extension without prior public notification or scrutiny of the contract has raised allegations of “gross mismanagement” and a process “run out of control” from parliamentarians and government integrity experts.