The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has conducted a deep dive into procurements by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) Passport Office, finding that it repeatedly failed to follow routine procurement practices, including deliberately circumventing obligations to put bids to competitive tender, splitting work orders to avoid reporting thresholds, and falsifying records to cover up non-compliance.

The investigation is likely to trigger a period of heightened scrutiny of procurement practices across all federal agencies and the introduction of additional internal compliance and monitoring systems.