ANAO found DFAT's Australian Passport Office requesting quotes from suppliers not on approved panels while those same suppliers were already working for DFAT — constituting illegal limited tender. The same breach was found in a previous ANAO audit. DFAT had not taken effective corrective action.
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$50.0M of Australian taxpayer money was wasted at Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Australian Passport Office). ANAO found DFAT's Australian Passport Office requesting quotes from suppliers not on approved panels while those same suppliers were already working for DFAT — constituting illegal limited tender. The same breach was found in a previous ANAO audit. DFAT had not taken effective corrective action.
Spread across Australia's 10.8 million households, that's roughly $5 per family — enough in total for covering the university fees of 1,667 students.
ANAO Auditor-General Report No. 11 of 2024-25 found DFAT's Australian Passport Office requesting quotes from suppliers not on approved procurement panels while those same suppliers were already engaged and performing work for DFAT — constituting illegal limited tender under Commonwealth Procurement Rules.
The same procurement breach pattern was identified in a previous ANAO performance audit of DFAT. Despite the prior finding and DFAT's formal response accepting the recommendations, no effective corrective action was taken. The same rule-breaking recurred.
Additional failure: One tender was issued that closed with zero responses — suggesting the procurement was structured in a way that excluded the market entirely, either through poor scope definition or over-restrictive requirements.
Estimated value of affected contracts: approximately $50M (Reckoner estimate based on ANAO audit scope; exact figure not publicly disclosed).
This is a systemic governance failure that DFAT leadership was aware of, accepted recommendations about, and then ignored.
Sources:
- ANAO Report No. 11 2024-25: https://www.anao.gov.au/sites/default/files/2024-10/Auditor-General_Report_2024-25_11.pdf
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