Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo has rejected he oversaw “endemic underperformance” over the handling of a contract for keeping a watch on the nation’s borders.
Pezzullo told the parliament’s public accounts and audit committee on Friday he faced a “devil’s choice” between losing the capability to protect the nation’s borders or extending existing contracts.
A review by the Australian National Audit Office released in 2021 criticised a contract signed between the government and company Surveillance Australia to provide 10 aircraft to patrol the country’s borders.
The $2.6 billion contract has not been put to tender since it was first awarded in 2006 despite the auditor-general finding the department’s handling of it had “not been effective”….