Allegations of widespread corruption and mismanagement within the Australia-funded refugee support program in Papua New Guinea will be formally investigated by the Port Moresby government.
After allegations from a whistleblower inside PNG’s immigration authority that millions of dollars had potentially been misused, PNG’s deputy prime minister, also the minister for immigration, John Rosso, has ordered an audit into where the money has gone.
“The serious allegations by the whistleblower, separate complaints raised by other parties, the local and international media coverage on it, and the undertaking by the Australian government to investigate the program, requires our government to carry out our own audit into the arrangement,” Rosso said.
He said he had written to PNG’s chief migration officer Stanis Hulahau, demanding a report on the secretive Australian-funded refugee support scheme – the details of which both Port Moresby and Canberra have consistently refused to reveal publicly.
“I directed that the report should cover the current management of the program,” Rosso said, “the bilateral funding involved, and the process involved in the management of the funds with a list of all the service providers.”
In an interview with the Guardian a week ago, Hulahau said the allegations of corruption were false and motivated by malice.
“What is being said is not true,” he said. “These allegations are false, and there has been no evidence provided.
“The moneys have not been corrupted or misused, the money has been used by the service providers who have provided those services. They were used legitimately. There is no element of corruption.”
Australia funded PNG’s humanitarian program through a contract signed in 2021 by the then Morrison government, which was kept secret at the time and the details of which the Albanese government still refuses to reveal.
The agreement was to provide accommodation, health and other support services for refugees exiled to PNG by Australia as part of the offshore detention regime formerly run on Manus Island, before that centre was ordered shut by the PNG supreme court.
Most of the 64 remaining refugees and asylum seekers – the final cohort from the Manus detention centre – have been held in PNG for a decade and are in poor physical and mental health.
Money for the support program came from Australia’s $303m irregular maritime arrival “offshore management” budget and was sent to PNG’s immigration and citizenship authority, which paid PNG private contractors to provide accommodation, groceries, medical care and transport to refugees and asylum seekers.
But with slower-than-expected resettlement – in part due to Covid travel restrictions – the Australian money has essentially run out and the services required to support the refugees and asylum seekers have been cut or drastically reduced.
Some refugees have been threatened with eviction from their accommodation. Several PNG businesses, including motels where refugees are housed, transport companies and security firms, are owed millions of dollars. One Port Moresby hospital is owed nearly $40m.
In a letter sent to Rosso, the whistleblower alleged widespread corruption within the program – particularly surrounding the hiring of cars.
He claimed private vehicles were “cross-hired” so as to disguise the beneficiaries of contracts, and relatives of senior officials were allowing their private vehicles to be hired through a front company, then claiming a personal benefit.
The whistleblower also alleged that contracts were improperly awarded, without an open tender process, and given to companies with no experience providing the services required.
And he said PNG police’s fraud and anti-corruption directorate had started investigations into six complaints made against the PNG immigration authority but that these had been discontinued under political pressure.
A source with knowledge of the program said while the political attention on the allegations was welcome, “I have serious concern that investigations into the whistleblower’s complaint will be suppressed.”
And he said the refugees remained stranded, facing an indefinite, uncertain future. “Time is running out for the remaining refugees – nobody knows what will happen.”
Hulahau has said PNG plans for the majority of refugees – about 40 – to be resettled in New Zealand, while 16, who are dangerously unwell and in need of high-level medical care – will be flown to Australian for treatment. About 10 of the refugees and asylum seekers have expressed a desire to stay in PNG – most of these because they have married PNG nationals and have families.
