Refugee support workers who were based in Papua New Guinea say they were "directed to cook the books" by one of their managers for an Australian Government audit.

Key points: Australia is currently spending more than $1 billion a year on services for around 1,000 refugees and non-refugees who remain in PNG and Nauru, another asylum seeker processing site

Australia is currently spending more than $1 billion a year on services for around 1,000 refugees and non-refugees who remain in PNG and Nauru, another asylum seeker processing site Workers in Papua New Guinea say their former employer was not equipped to implement a $44 million contract for the Australian Government

Workers in Papua New Guinea say their former employer was not equipped to implement a $44 million contract for the Australian Government They claim they were asked to falsify documentation about their work with former Manus Island detainees to make it look like they were meeting government requirements

In some cases, they allege that staff employed to fulfil part of a $44 million contract with the Australian Government were asked to write up files for clients they had not seen.

The ABC has spoken to 14 former staff who say the contracted company was not equipped to do the work.

"It's failing the refugees. It's failing the caseworkers. It's failing the Australian taxpayer. It's failing everybody," said former support worker Desley Quinton.

'I'm not prepared to commit fraud'

In 2017, hundreds of men who had been detained on PNG's Manus Island for trying to seek asylum in Australia by boat were allowed out of the detention centre to live in the community.

JDA Wokman — now known as Applus Wokman — has the $44 million contract to help the former detainees settle and access health and other services in Papua New Guinea.

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It employs local staff as case workers as the contact point for their clients, including both refugees and non-refugees, many who have complex trauma issues and have been on Manus Island for six years.

Vincent Yawimbari (L) and Jason Siwat both worked for a company tasked to provide services for former Manus Island detainees. ( ABC News: Natalie Whiting )

The case workers' main job is meeting with clients and developing plans for their health, education, employment and settlement needs.

Paradise Health Solutions is a PNG company, half-owned by Australian business Aspen Medical, that was subcontracted to JDA to provide Australian staff to support the local case workers.

Former employees of Paradise Health Solutions are speaking out for the first time, saying they were asked to change company paperwork for an Australian Government audit.

Townsville woman Desley Quinton was employed as a team leader and told the ABC that she resigned in protest shortly after a meeting with one of her managers and three other colleagues last August.

In the meeting, Ms Quinton said they were asked by their manager to "falsify records" to show they were meeting Australian Government requirements.

"JDA had to get everything in place for the auditors, so that it evidenced compliance … and we were directed to 'cook the books' — and they were the exact words that were used — to make it look like compliance had been occurring over time," Ms Quinton said.

"And I refused to do it. I said: 'I'm not doing it.'"

Caseworkers would fill out a needs assessment with the client and then write a support plan; these would need to be updated over time.

Ms Quinton said they discussed in the meeting that many of the support plans had not been done, and that some plans were being written up without the refugees' involvement.

"How could you possibly know what a person needs if you don't ask them?" Ms Quinton said.

Ms Quinton resigned soon after, writing a detailed letter on August 30 last year outlining her reasons for leaving.

"I am not prepared to commit fraud by 'Cooking the books' for any reason, particularly with the Australian Commonwealth," Ms Quinton wrote.

Another former PHS employee, Jennifer McMahon, backs up Ms Quinton's account of the meeting.

Ms McMahon said despite the best efforts of the Papua New Guinean caseworkers, key time frames for meeting some of the clients and filling out their paperwork were not met.

Jennifer McMahon was contracted to work for Paradise Health Solutions in Papua New Guinea. ( ABC News: Alexandra Blucher )

"What [our manager] was asking us to do was change the dates so that it looked like JDA had complied to the time frames," Ms McMahon said.

Ms McMahon said she did not follow the directive.

The Department of Home Affairs would not confirm whether an audit had taken place after the August meeting, but said it conducted monthly performance monitoring of JDA and carried out site visits to ensure it met its contractual requirements.

The department referred the ABC to the Australian National Audit Office but it said it could not comment on any audit work due to confidentiality provisions under its legislation.

Caseworkers under pressure

After resigning in disgust, Ms Quinton also alleges in her resignation letter that PNG caseworkers told her JDA had "instructed [them] to complete management plans without needs assessments and to just fill in the plan in order to appear as if they have met government funding requirements, even if the information was not relevant."

Vincent Yawimbari felt his professional integrity was being compromised. ( ABC News: Natalie Whiting )

"Unless I'm mistaken, this comes across as 'fraud'," she wrote.

Vincent Yawimbari and Melanie Mohoi are former local caseworkers with JDA.

Mr Yawimbari is an experienced worker previously employed by PNG Immigration before joining JDA when they took over the job at the end of 2017.

He said that his supervisors from JDA and Paradise Health Solutions asked him to write support plans for clients he had not seen, which compromised his integrity.

"I have to uphold the integrity of the profession, and my personal integrity," he said.

"I believed that if I don't do that then I might be fired. At that time, I feel very low."

Melanie Mohoi worked for JDA Wokman in Papua New Guinea. ( Supplied )

He said he completed the plans for three clients he had not seen and, while his Paradise Health Solutions team leader asked him to declare they had been done without the client's involvement, it still made him feel uncomfortable to do it without their consent.

He said it could be difficult trying to work with clients who did not want to be involved but was concerned not enough attempts were made to engage some of them.

Ms Mohoi said she was under "huge" pressure to have clients' support plans up to date, so she sometimes used outdated needs assessments to write them.

"Some, they can be outdated [by] one month, two months, three months or five, six months, depending on the cases," she said.

She said she feared she would lose her job if she did not do this and would try to update them later.

"I can honestly say there wasn't proper training for myself as an individual to conduct a quality support plan for the clients, basically we had to use our own knowledge and previous experience," she said.

Mr Yawimbari and Ms Mohoi were among a number of employees who had their contracts terminated late last year before JDA had its contract renewed in January for six months.

Calls for Australian Government to investigate

Desley Quinton, who worked for Paradise Health Solutions, said the clients deserved better and the Federal Government should investigate their allegations, and where the money has been going.

"I personally felt [JDA was] struggling to meet the needs," Ms Quinton said.

"There were a lack of resources, [we] often didn't have enough paper to print out notes or ran out of ink … we had inconsistent computer access, we had laptops that weren't working effectively."

Ms McMahon also said there should be an investigation.

"(It's) gut-wrenching … these men are people, they're human beings and at the very least they deserve to have a proper service delivered to them," she said.

"I have absolute regard to the caseworkers, and I know they did their very best to help these men, but there was so many obstacles and many barriers, most of which were created by JDA."

Ms McMahon's contract was not renewed by Paradise Health Solutions last October.

Linda Pekosi says that JDA should not have the Australian contract. ( ABC News: Natalie Whiting )

Australia is currently spending more than $1 billion a year on services for around 1,000 refugees and non-refugees who remain in PNG and Nauru, another asylum seeker processing site.

Linda Pekosi and Jason Siwat were also employed as caseworkers with PNG Immigration and started working for JDA when it took on the wider role.

Ms Pekosi said she believed JDA did not have enough experience doing welfare services for refugees with complex health issues and provided little formal training to new staff: "This contract should never be given to JDA again."

JDA previously provided recruitment and job placement services for refugees, before widening their role to welfare and settlement services.

Mr Siwat also believed that JDA was not equipped to work with vulnerable people like the refugees (and non-refugees).

"On what merits did the Australian Government award the contract that's worth millions of Australian taxpayer dollars for [JDA] to provide the service on Manus?" Mr Siwat said.

Ms Pekosi and Mr Siwat both had their contracts terminated last June.

The pair made complaints about outstanding pay, poor staff treatment, and workplace conditions to the PNG Government and Australian Department of Home Affairs.

JDA and Paradise Health Solutions could not respond directly to the ABC due to contract restraints, referring questions to the Department of Home Affairs.

The department said any allegations of misconduct were taken seriously and if substantiated it would "give notice to remove personnel".

The workers said they could not understand how JDA had been able to continue providing subpar services.

"The Australian Government needs to do a stringent investigation into where their money is going," Ms Quinton said.

"We don't know where the profit or that money was going to."