Home Affairs official blows whistle on allegedly ‘corrupt’ millions in offshore detention

“That was the environment we were providing by basically pouring money into a pit full of broken contracts and services… I had and still have a moral problem with that.”

Elias claims that in a contract renewal he oversaw in mid-2021, he identified up to $16 million in taxpayer money paid to Canstruct for nonexistent or unnecessary services. He suspected the firm’s overcharging amounted to tens of millions of dollars.

The public official said he recently gave crucial evidence into the ongoing federal police corruption investigation into Canstruct.

The investigation, codenamed Operation Bernie-Beveridge, is examining how Canstruct claimed millions of dollars from the Home Office for insurance premiums now suspected to have been used to insure fast cars, mansions, expensive works of art and yachts.

Elias alleged that Canstruct pressured the Department of the Interior to pay multimillion-dollar insurance premiums during contract negotiations and concealed the firm’s decision to use taxpayer funds to insure personal belongings.

“I remember at the last negotiation Canstruct made it clear to me personally in the corridor… they were happy to negotiate on a variety of issues, but not on insurances.”

“I found it very confronting,” he said of the suspected misuse of funds, also claiming he was encouraged to cover up suspected abuses.

“There was a very strong culture within the Home Affairs regime at a time when questioning decisions to keep things going on Nauru was not going to help your employment.

“You are expected to remain silent about your concerns. Absolutely.”

While Elias’ visibility over questionable Home Affairs contract dealings has ended in 2021, the decision to go public comes as the Albanian government faces increasing scrutiny around a separate immigration deal with Nauru.

The small country recently agreed to take in hundreds of former immigration detainees deemed too dangerous to remain in Australia. Nauru grants visas to the group, called NZYQ, in exchange for up to $2.5 billion in Australian taxpayers’ funds over 30 years.

On Saturday, another whistleblower, former Australian soldier Oisin Donohoe, revealed how the Finks biker gang infiltrated the deal through a Nauruan security company in a bid to make millions of dollars from this pool of funds.

“It was pretty overwhelming knowing that an outlaw motorcycle group was running a company that had a government contract. [on Nauru]said Donohoe, who previously served as a rifleman in the Australian Army for almost five years.

He called it “mind-boggling” that the bikes could be part of a “contract to oversee a pretty significant national security item.”

Loading

A 2024 investigation by former spy chief Dennis Richardson raised concerns similar to Elias’s about the Home Office’s failure to protect government funds on Nauru in relation to the offshore processing regime.

The Albanian government views the offshore processing arrangement in Nauru as completely separate from the NZYQ agreement; although both involve large amounts of public money spent on the notoriously corrupt island.

The Richardson investigation led to department reforms aimed at improving due diligence surrounding offshore immigration contracts.

In a statement, the Home Office insisted that improved controls had been built into the ongoing offshore processing regime on Nauru, which involved around 100 asylum seekers.

But documents provided to this imprint suggest that illegal activities, including the artificial inflating of subcontracts, continued to occur under the watchful eye of the company appointed by Home Affairs to replace Canstruct to handle offshore operations at MTC, Nauru.

MTC referred inquiries from this imprint to the department.

Elias said he believed Australian funding was continuing apace on Nauru.

“I have no doubt that this is happening and will continue to happen,” he said.

Elias said he had wrestled with the idea of ​​becoming a public whistleblower for years.

“It’s been on my mind for a very long time, but ultimately I think it’s almost a mission,” he said. “I think it is very important for the public to know how their money is being wasted.

“We were supporting an unaccountable system. We were paying for things that didn’t happen.”

Elias also hit back at what he described as attempts by the Home Office to cast doubt on his integrity and motivations, saying he would gain nothing by publishing his allegations and that he was being unfairly attacked because he was accused of wrongdoing by his employer.

“I’m really tired of this,” he said. “I don’t think I did anything wrong. Why should I apologize or feel guilty for saying we spent money we shouldn’t have and that money went to people who put it in their own pockets?”

Canstruct has previously faced allegations that it paid subcontractors owned by or linked to suspected corrupt Nauruan politicians, who then pocketed excess profits.

One of those accused of improperly benefiting from these kickbacks is President David Adeang, who recently signed the NZYQ migrants deportation agreement with the Albanian government.

In his interview, Elias claimed it was an open secret in the Home Office that Nauruan officials suspected of corruption would seek to profit from offshore immigration deals funded by Australian taxpayers.

“I would say Canstruct has a very comfortable relationship with the Nauruan government providing additional services and favors, sweeteners, they pay the Nauruan government which I find quite shocking,” he said.

Adeang has a sordid past filled with suspicions of corruption. Australian security agencies have previously warned the federal government in 2020 that Australia may have pocketed kickbacks allegedly paid by firms subcontracted to run its offshore processing regime on Nauru.

Adeang is also suspected of using Australian banks to fund money laundering funds to conduct offshore transactions, according to intelligence briefings shared with federal government agencies and senior ministers.

Home Secretary Tony Burke declined an interview request, but the Home Office said in a statement that the offshore processing regime was carefully managed and involved “robust” due diligence.

“Suppliers must meet the standards of ethics, performance and diligence expected of them as suppliers to the Commonwealth and must have the ability and capacity to deliver and perform in accordance with agreed contractual terms and conditions,” the statement said.

Canstruct did not respond to a request for comment but had previously refused to comment on the allegations, which were investigated by AFP.