18 Officials Under Investigation at Australian Passport Office

A federal audit has found the Australian Passport Office (APO) ignored government procurement rules and wasted money, including $31,422 on travel costs supposedly for “planning” trips to set up a conference in Port Douglas, Queensland.
But the conference later took place in Canberra, which resulted in the forfeiture of $104,196 in deposits paid to the venue in Port Douglas. The Canberra venue then cost a further $19,940.
Procurement decision-making was not sufficiently accountable and was not transparent and “procurement practices fell short of ethical standards.”
In this period, 243 new contracts totalling $476.5 million were entered into, in addition to existing contracts. These had also not been allocated by an open request for tender and in over three-quarters of those cases, the Passport Office had identified its preferred supplier even before starting the process.
In one case, the successful tenderer was late submitting their bid—an automatic disqualification under the rules—and was still awarded the contract.
“The [Passport Office] had already identified its preferred supplier or candidate prior to approaching the market for 52 contracts totalling $305.5 million, which equates to 71 percent by number, or 75 percent by value of the 73 APO contracts examined,” the ANAO said.
Yet the APO staff involved claimed that all the contracts had been put to open tenders and produced documents to show that quotes had been sought from Indigenous firms when this hadn’t occurred.
The contracts cover everything from the secure delivery of passports to call centre and accounting services, the supply of artworks, and labour hire to cope with the sharp rise in demand after borders reopened.
Even the contractor who managed the APO’s procurement team had his contract extended repeatedly for 10 years. He initiated an extension by emailing a subordinate (who was also a contractor), telling them to action the extension. The APO, however, claimed the contract had resulted from an open tender process.
Conflicts of interest were not adequately managed, and in 16 cases, they were not declared at all. On two occasions, a contract was awarded to the spouse of a DFAT employee.
Tenders classified as “low risk” by Passport Office staff cost up to seven times what was budgeted, and in one case, 10 times the initial estimate.
“The Australian Passport Office (APO) is meant to provide Australians with an official government document and adhere to the Commonwealth Procurement Rules to administer this service,” Birmingham said.
“Australians are being taken for a ride twice over before they’ve even left the country, firstly by paying the highest passport prices in the world, and secondly as officials appear to have been leaving taxpayers exposed via questionable procurement practices.”