Paladin Group (security company)

In September 2017, Paladin holdings was awarded an AUD contract to provide security, IT, local transport and some site management for three Australian immigration detention centers located in the town of Lorengau on Manus Island, Manus Province, Papua New Guinea. These centres are West Lorengau Haus, East Lorengau Refugee Transit Center, and Hillside Haus. They still held the contract as of April 2019.[2][5] The contract has been reported, but not verified, as being valued at $423 million.[6]

In June 2019, after the contract had been renewed several times, the Australian Minister for Home Affairs, Peter Dutton, said that Paladin's contract would probably be extended once again. However, a few days later the Papua New Guinean government indicated that they would cancel or terminate the contract. The PNG Immigration Minister Petrus Thomas said the PNG Government wanted a transparent tender process, and that “Papua New Guinean companies now have the capacity and expertise to do the job and should be given the opportunity to participate.”[7]

On 26 June 2019 the Australian Department of Home Affairs and the PNG Immigration and Citizenship Authority issued a statement confirming a limited extension of Paladin’s contract after which the PNG government would administer a tender process for a local party to take over the contract.[8] In July 2019 media reports referred to an email from Paladin Managing Director David Saul that confirmed the contract had been extended for six months in a decision that “recognises the professionalism of Paladin.[9]  

In April 2019, the company's website stated they employed 4,500 local nationals across the Asia-Pacific, including in Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore.[3]

In June 2019 Paladin announced that its strategy of nationalising its PNG workforce had reached the milestone of 98 per cent local staff after its expatriate staff numbers had been halved in two years with more nationals stepping into senior managerial and technical roles.[10] Paladin also increased the shareholding of Peren, the local landowning group, to make it a fifty-fifty partnership as per the terms of an MoU that was signed in 2014.[11]  

Prior to being awarded the large contract, Paladin's work included being a subcontractor providing security at East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre on Manus Island, which housed 60 people. Their contract was worth about $15 million a year as estimated by competitors, though currently unverified.[12]

In July 2019 Paladin sponsored an initiative by Australia-based not-for-profit Screens Without Borders to bring cinema back to Manus Island after forty years.[13] A series of film screenings were held in remote communities across the island.

Paladin's contract for Manus Island ended on the 30th of November 2019, they aimed for an orderly transition to a PNG company to provide care and maintenance at the ELRTC facility.

Paladin's website states that they are Australian-owned. In April 2019, the website listed the following subsidiaries in various countries:[3]

Australia:

• Paladin Group Aus Pty Ltd - offices in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
• Greater Monaro Electrical Construction and Management (ECM Monaro) - Cooma, New South Wales

Papua New Guinea:

• Paladin Group
• Black Swan International - former competitors of Paladin in PNG private security sector, who were taken over in 2019.[1]
• Electrical Construction and Management (ECM).

Singapore:

• Paladin Holdings Pte Ltd - a holding company whose registered offices are on Battery Rd.

Timor Leste:

• Paladin Group (Timor-Leste subsidiary).
• Sentinel.
• Rentlo Car Hire - a car hire company based in Dili.[14]

Paladin also had a holding company registered in Hong Kong[15] since 2013.[5]

In Australia, the group's former name was High Risk Security Group (Asia-Pacific) Pty Ltd (2010), Paladin Group Pty Ltd (2010-2018) and is now Paladin Aus Pty Ltd (2018–present). Their Australian Business Number is 64 144 000 573.[17]

On 11 February 2019, the Australian Financial Review published an article which alleged that Paladin was connected to a company called High Risk Security Group and a related entity HRSG Australasia Pty Ltd and cited controversies linked to it, this story was retracted by Australian Financial Review on Friday the 10th of May 2019. On 21 February 2019, Paladin published a statement on its website clarifying that neither of these businesses were owned, managed or controlled in anyway by Paladin or its directors.[18]

Registered office locations

In February 2019 the company transferred its Australian office to a building in Canberra.[15][18]

Their main offices are located in Singapore.[5]

Government contract tender process

Paladin were awarded the Australian Government contract by the Department of Home Affairs without an open tender process,[2] which suggests they were the only company invited to bid, this is unverified. This was despite having little experience and a poor reputation, according to allegations made by the Australian Financial Review, now retracted.[15] Paladin has had a record as a subcontractor providing services on Manus Island dating back to 2013. The Department of Home Affairs stated that it had previously run a closed tender but attracted little response partly because larger companies didn’t want the “noise”.[19]

The Australian Financial Review reported that Serco, Broadspectrum, Spotless Group, Blue Point Services, Anitua (PNG-based firm) and Canstruct (a Brisbane-based construction firm who later acquired a $591 million contract to manage Nauru Regional Processing Centre[20]) indicated interest in the contract, but were not allowed to bid, this is unverified.[21]

Removal of Craig Thrupp from contract

In April 2019, it was revealed that Craig Thrupp was removed from the contract at the request of the Home Affairs, out of concern about an email account.

Money laundering case

Kisokau Powaseu, a former colonel in the Papua New Guinean Defence Force, was detained in Port Moresby in January 2019 on charges of money laundering relating to his time in the Papua New Guinean Defence Force.[5][22] He was for a brief period, a local director of the company in Papua New Guinea and no further action has occurred in relation to these charges.

Civil case

The company's former chief executive in PNG, Craig Coleman, was suing Paladin in February 2019 claiming breach of contract and that employees were sent to Manus under misleading pretences.[5]

Security dispute

In January 2018, there was a dispute between Paladin and Kingfisher Security, a PNG security firm. Kingfisher officers prevented Paladin staff from entering the detention center. Refugees reported feeling unsafe due to the disruption caused by the local firm, however the situation was soon resolved.[23]

Alleged corruption

In February 2019 it was reported that the family of one of PNG's most powerful politicians was directly benefiting from the business of Paladin. Paladin entered into a contract with Peren Solutions, a company with links to the family of Job Pomat, deputy leader of the ruling People's National Congress Party, speaker of the PNG Parliament, and key ally of Prime Minister Peter O'Neill.[6] Job Pomat, who was elected Speaker of Parliament in 2017, has denied any links to the firm, a position supported by Paladin which stated that Peren represents the traditional landowners of the site that the Lorengau facility is located at, and that they are under the leadership of Kepo Pomat.[18]

The agreement with Peren predates the award of this contract and the election of Mr. Pomat.

Labour disputes

In 2018, Paladin Solutions acquired a leading local security services provider called Black Swan and there were some complaints over wages following this acquisition. All Paladin employees earn award wages and regulatory obligations to superannuation met.

The same month, some Paladin employees walked off the job, demanding better pay (most were paid between $2–3 per hour), better security, meals, and overtime pay for long shifts. They also complained that some employees had their wages reduced.[24] This industrial action was illegal under Papua New Guinea law and police intervened to help resolve the situation.[25]

Sexual assault case

In April 2019 an Australian Paladin employee was arrested and jailed on Manus Island due to allegations of sexual assault. The employee was a former G4S employee and had returned to Manus to work for Paladin.[26] The alleged victim is a Paladin employee.

Australian government audit

In March 2019, the Auditor General of Australia announced that he was reviewing all Australian Government contracts for the offshore processing of asylum seekers.[27] This followed a request by the Australian Labor Party for the Auditor to review the Paladin contract.[28] Though, the Auditor General stated that offshore contracts had already been suggested for a performance audit, before Labor's request.[29]

• Paladin (disambiguation)
• Paladin Group (fascist private military contractor), an unrelated, defunct fascist mercenary group that operated in Francoist Spain