Loading The FOI request was initially denied by the Department of Health and Human Services and only released to former Liberal MP Margaret Fitzherbert after a legal challenge. The spotlight fell on this 30-level high-rise estate tower following an unsolved killing there last December. Four years of emails between the department and the cleaning company reveal that filthy conditions at Park Towers and other public housing properties were often left neglected by GJK. They show frustration from department staff overseeing GJK contracts regularly reaching boiling point. “At some stage I am going to have to decide is GJK negligent, incompetent or simply uncaring. Perhaps all three. Negligent certainly, as to the other two time will tell,” reads a 2013 email from a property management employee.

“I am rapidly losing confidence in GJK’s ability to reliably and professionally perform the works it has been contracted for,” reads another email from 2014. A September 2014 email details a host of dirty areas, litter and "spit marks" on corridor walls. In early 2015 the department issued three $500 fines to GJK for breaching its contractual obligations which included removing hard rubbish, shopping trolleys and graffiti, and scrubbing common areas.

GJK's contracts contain dozens of pages of specific directions for each cleaning and maintenance task required in common areas, including that removal of urine, excrement, blood and syringes should occur daily. One note from 2013 states: “The brown organic matter on the wall of the public toilet has been present [for] at least [six days]”. Although the email exchanges indicate cleaning improved at times, threats of financial penalties from the department continue through 2015. “Whilst the cleaning services at this block are generally of good quality, if your operator does not start cleaning the vertical tiling in the common areas there will be repercussions,” one email reads. Despite the slew of complaints about GJK's negligence, the company won tenders to clean public housing across Melbourne's west, north and south. Those contracts were worth almost $82 million over two years.

The most recent contracts show the cleaning budget just for Park Towers – the largest public housing tower in Victoria, with 310 apartments – is $14,000 a month. Read a sample of the emails here In a 2017 email the head of Park Towers Housing Tenant Management association John Lowndes complained about GJK's cleaning and threatened to take the company to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to sever the contract.

Photos from FOI email exchanges show the filthy inside of a lift inside Park Towers in August 2016. Credit:Department of Health and Human Services Mr Lowndes, who has lived in Park Towers for 13 years, said GJK's cleaners had never done the job properly. He acknowledged they had a hard time because the towers were in a dilapidated state, but said it was not acceptable they regularly failed to perform their duties. He said he had seen everything from human and dog faeces in stairwells to used condoms left for days in common areas. “We have a lot of families here now with young children, and they just shouldn’t have to put up with the filth,” he said. “It’s absolutely outrageous they keep getting contracts”. One resident, Albertina Martins, has lived at Park Towers since 1983. She said she often found herself cleaning some areas of the building soon after the cleaners left. "They don't clean properly," she said.

Last year GJK's multimillion-dollar contracts were extended without public notice. The government's own purchasing guidelines dictate that contracts worth more than $100,000 be disclosed on the Victorian Tenders website within 60 days of a contract being let. GJK's contract renewal is still missing from the public register – 10 months after it was extended. In response to questions from The Age the government said: "The department works closely with contractors to manage performance as part of a continuous improvement process". Garbage in stairwells that were required to be cleaned regularly under GJK's contract. Credit:Department of Health and Human Services The department said its failure to disclose GJK's contract extension was "an administrative error" that would "be rectified as soon as possible".

Former Victorian premier Steve Bracks and George Stamas in 2007. GJK's contract was extended last year because its performance for the initial period of the current contract was deemed satisfactory, the department said. George Stamas, a director, secretary and majority owner of GJK - which also has cleaning contracts with Victoria Police and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning – returned an initial phone call following questions from The Age but did not comment. The awarding of the three large cleaning contracts to GJK drew controversy in 2007, after The Age revealed close links between the then major projects minister Theo Theophanous and Mr Stamas, who was then a Labor Party donor. Albertina Martins, John Lowndes and Felicia Benga are residents of South Melbourne's Park Towers. Mr Lowndes said the two women often cleaned their hallways and their level's laundry rooms - something GJK is contracted to do. Credit:Darrian Traynor

According to Victoria's tender register, the contract was worth almost $50 million between 2007 and 2015. During a sitting of Parliament, then-Liberal leader Ted Ballieu produced an enlarged photograph of Premier Steve Bracks with his arm around the shoulder of Mr Stamas. The reports led to an investigation by the Victorian Ombudsman which saw then housing minister Candy Broad admit that Mr Stamas had personally lobbied her over a cleaning contract he wanted Labor to extend. Loading While he did not find clear evidence of political interference, Ombudsman George Brouwer raised issues with the Office of Housing awarding GJK cleaning contracts for all three districts of Melbourne when other companies were bidding for work.

Former Liberal upper house MP Margaret Fitzherbert, who lost her seat at last November's state election, went to VCAT to force the department to release documents under FOI, and said public housing tenants were being "ripped off". “DHHS received many complaints about cleaning at Park Towers, and they criticised GJK and issued it with financial penalties when cleaning wasn’t done," she said. "Yet they gave GJK more cleaning contracts, worth tens of millions of dollars – why?” She said the Ombudsman should review the tendering process and the department's management of the contracts. Ceiling damage and mould at Park Towers in April 2019. Credit:Park Towers Tenant Management The Age asked Housing Minister Richard Wynne if he believed public housing residents were getting value for money from GJK Cleaning Services.

In response, a spokesman for Mr Wynne said the government was “continually reviewing the performance of our contractors”. Opposition housing spokesman Tim Smith said it was clear cleaners were “not doing their job properly so Richard Wynne needs to act immediately … he must fix this mess now”.