<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/29/us-private-prisons-operator-paid-790m-to-hold-100-people-on-nauru-in-quiet-expansion-of-contract>
"A US private prisons operator will receive $157m a year to run Australia’s
offshore processing regime in Nauru – currently holding just over 100 people –
after the government quietly expanded its contract by more than $350m to
three-quarters-of-a-billion dollars.
The two-year extension without prior public notification or scrutiny of the
contract has raised allegations of “gross mismanagement” and a process “run out
of control” from parliamentarians and government integrity experts.
MTC Australia is a subsidiary of US-based Management and Training Corporation,
which runs hundreds of for-profit prisons in the US and UK. A previous
Guardian investigation reported historical allegations in civil suits of
“gross negligence” and “egregious” security failures relating to two US
facilities, and a US$5.2m (A$8m) settlement in 2019 over a Mississippi state
government bribery scandal.
In September 2022, MTC Australia won a contract through limited tender to
provide “reception, garrison and welfare services” for asylum seekers held on
Nauru, for $47m over two months.
The initial two-month contract was extended for another two months, increasing
to $69m in December 2022. In January 2023, the government announced MTC would
continue in the contract for another three years for $422m.
On 1 October, the latest amendment to MTC’s contract will commence, lifting the
contract’s value by $365m to $787m – more than 16 times its original value –
and extending it out to 2027.
At the end of July, 105 adult male asylum seekers were held on the island: 15
within the RPC1 processing centre and 90 in Nauruan community accommodation.
At the current rate, MTC’s contract on Nauru is worth $157m a year: to hold 105
people on the island, at nearly $1.5m per person per year. If the contract does
not increase further in cost before its expiry, Australian taxpayers will have
paid $430,512 a day to process asylum seekers offshore.
The series of amendments also offers no details about the reasons behind the
extension of MTC’s services for more than $350m."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
