Ahuja stepped down as chief executive of MA Services Group on Thursday morning after this masthead uncovered allegations of sexual harassment, bullying and offering vulnerable women cash in exchange for sex. Since then, this masthead has received more reports alleging that Ahuja has a long history of sexually harassing women in the workplace.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has declined to answer questions about Australia’s role in funding a private security force on Nauru.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
In response to questions about why it was paying MA Services Group almost $4 million to secure its offices given the serious allegations, the ACIC said it had an “existing contract” with the firm and that its “security guards are licensed, hold a security clearance and are also subject to the ACIC’s Organisational Suitability Assessment”.
Burke also declined to answer questions about whether it was appropriate that Australia continued to pay for – via a funding deal with the Nauru government – a multimillion-dollar private security force on the island.
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The security force was created by personnel at MA Services Group via subcontractors, and its job is to protect the Nauruan community from immigration deportees – known as the NZYQ cohort – deemed too dangerous to remain in Australia and who are being gradually deported to the Pacific by Labor.
Two sources with ties to the security arrangement confirmed that only days ago, a senior MA Services Group operative directed members of the private security force to keep secret the Australian security company’s continuing ties to the Nauru operation.
“In short, it’s definitely still run and managed by MA” figures, one source said of the security operation.
MA Services Group has previously sought to distance itself from the Nauru operation amid revelations of links to a bikie gang also involved in the security deal.
But the private security guards on Nauru were told by the MA Services Group operative they would be operating via a newly formed subcontractor, International Security Solutions, and would be given new uniforms.
The sources also revealed new details about how the security force was operating.
It consists of former Australian law enforcement and military personnel and other security guards who conduct covert and overt surveillance on the small number of NZYQ cohort members in Nauru. The security operatives are directed to call the Nauru Police Force if they fear a crime will be committed.
The sources said International Security Solutions would replace an earlier firm created by people associated with MA Services Group, Nauru Community Safety Pty Ltd.
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Earlier this month, Ahuja sought to claim – via a public relations agent – that he had no connection to Nauru Community Safety. However, an MA Services Group insider this week leaked a document on official Nauru government letterhead that names Ahuja and an MA Services Group subsidiary, the MA International Group, as the registered shareholders of Nauru Community Safety.
While the Albanese government and the federal agencies and departments still paying MA Services for security guards have said nothing about the firm’s future as a government contractor, some of its corporate clients are moving to sever ties to the embattled firm.
Security industry sources said that Amazon and property giant CBRE were among the blue-chip companies seeking to replace MA Services Group after the revelation about the firm and Ahuja’s conduct, while Coles has launched a major internal investigation that might imperil a multimillion-dollar contract with the supermarket giant.
Ahuja has denied all allegations of wrongdoing and said this week that his decision to quit as CEO was because he wanted to focus on being a husband and father. But he will not escape scrutiny, with a parliamentary inquiry examining the Nauru security deal.
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