Australian visa personnel took money in India corruption: report

A FORMER member of Australia’s department of home affairs took almost $10,000 by interfering in the processing of visas on a number of occasions, an investigation by the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) has found, media reports Down Under reported.

Operation Swordfish, which was set up as part of the Visa Integrity Task Force and probed the employee who worked as a visa-processing officer at the Australian High Commission in New Delhi, India.

It was found that the officer got visa applicant details from the work systems, forwarded them to a personal email before offering applicants and their sponsors help in exchange for money.

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One mail to such an applicant read, “I am in need of urgent money and that’s why I am trying to help people who need it and in return do expect that people can help me too ... I will make sure, that all the documentation is complete and as and when a case officer picks up your file, it is straight away granted.”

Integrity commissioner and ACLEI head Jaala Hinchcliffe said in her 31-page report that the employee made a total of $9,798 from their corrupt actions on at least two occasions.

“The former employee engaged in corrupt conduct, namely abuse of office, which generally means someone has used their position to dishonestly benefit oneself or another, or to dishonestly cause detriment to another,” she said.

In one case, the corruption resulted in a 16-year-old being granted an application, which allowed them to travel to Australia. The Australian Federal Police was investigating the case.

On another instance, a sponsor believed that he had paid the visa fee rightly while the fact is that the employee had kept the money, meaning the Australian government was defrauded, Hinchcliffe said.

The employee was sacked in 2018 by the Australian High Commission after a client submitted a complaint.

“An important outcome of the Visa Integrity Task Force was the dissemination of corruption prevention products, which enable the corruption issues and vulnerabilities discovered through these investigations to be learnt from and mitigated in the future,” Hinchliffe was quoted as saying.