The new Bomana centre cost Australian taxpayers more than $20 million to build and will be used by PNG authorities to detain non-citizens and those without refugee status until deportation can be arranged. This will apply to dozens of men living on Manus Island who are without refugee status. Loading But extreme sensitivity surrounds the security contract and neither the Australian nor the PNG government will publicly comment on the winning bidder or the contract's value. Home Affairs has repeatedly said the Bomana contract is solely a matter for the PNG government, while PNG Chief migration officer Solomon Kantha has said it is Australia’s responsibility. A Home Affairs spokesman said that despite the wording of the PNG Immigration memo, it was "incorrect to assert" its officials were part of the tender evaluation committee.

The spokesman said Australian officials working with PNG Immigration were there to provide technical advice and had no decision-making role, with the security contract for Bomana the responsibility of Mr Kantha. Concerns have been raised about the process that led to a company called Controlled Outcomes being awarded the Bomana contract by PNG's Immigration & Citizenship Authority. Several sources have suggested to The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald that Controlled Outcomes was not the evaluation committee's initial preference. But Controlled Outcomes ended up winning the contract after high-level PNG political intervention, including an apparent directive to Mr Kantha for him to "reconsider" the initial decision on the contract. The Bomana Immigration Centre.

The revelation is the latest in a series of stories about Australia’s exposure to risk in PNG through the Home Affairs Department's contentious offshore processing arrangements, which have cost taxpayers $5 billion since 2013. Loading Controlled Outcomes is a joint venture between Australian security firm C5 Management Solutions and PNG company Tactical Solutions International. It has hired lobbyist Greg Rudd, the brother of former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, to promote its interests.

C5's owner, former Australian federal police agent Ty Clark, was working with PNG government agencies, including Immigration & Citizenship, at the time bids for Bomana security work were being evaluated. There is no suggestion Mr Clark or his business partner in Controlled Outcomes have acted inappropriately, but just that they were ultimately awarded the contracts. Mr Clark said he was unable to answer questions about whether Controlled Outcomes had won the tender, due to confidentiality agreements. Home Affairs has awarded C5 several ''direct source'' contracts for immigration and security work in PNG in recent years. This means they were issued without a competitive tender because of C5's specialist knowledge. The confidential August 2018 memo from the operations manager of the new Bomana centre includes his recommendation that the security contract be awarded to a different PNG security company to Controlled Outcomes, called PASS Security.

There is no suggestion that any members of the tender evaluation committee, including the Australians named in the official PNG memo, have been engaged in any wrongdoing or did anything other than assess bids on their merits. But other confidential documents reveal prior close relations between senior PNG Immigration officials and a related company to Controlled Outcomes, local security firm TSI. One example is a letter written by PNG's Chief Migration Officer, Mr Kantha, to PNG Defence Force commander Brigadier General Gilbert Toropo, in which he reveals how he awarded a contract directly to TSI in November 2017 to help protect assets following the closure of the Manus Island regional processing centre located on the Lombrum naval base. TSI, owned by Christopher Carroll, who is also the co-owner of Controlled Outcomes, was subcontracted to provide security services on Manus Island until the Paladin group took responsibility for security in October 2017. Senior Border Force officials and security contractors have told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald that high-ranking PNG government representatives have repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, urged Home Affairs and Paladin to give another subcontract to TSI.

In February 2018, PNG Defence officials ordered the removal of the security company's staff from the Manus Island naval base amid accusations TSI guards were collaborating with outsiders to loot and steal from the base. An email from a senior PNG defence official to PNG immigration officials says that "theft and stealing in collaboration with outsiders by TSI security personnel is a growing concern". "There are reports of such illegal activity happening which are before me. They were done in the cover of darkness where there is no lights to these premises," the Defence official wrote. "I have of this morning (1000 hrs) mustered TSI senior staff on the ground and directed them to recall their workforce and leave the military base." Photographs of the looting show broken Australian Border Force seals on shipping containers used to store property and goods.