The breaches occurred within the Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Group (GWEO), the $36 billion initiative designed to manufacture and stockpile advanced weapons and ammunition on Australian soil.
According to the defence file, the administrative errors included two payments of $8.1 million and $5.2 million, both made in June 2023 to cover contract price hikes before the mandatory legal approval required to increase the contract's value was obtained.
A further four transactions broke basic rules when staff went out to market to get quotes before receiving the required sign-off from managers. In another instance, officials broke spending rules on a $631,365 order by approving a bill higher than the allowed spending limit, then mistakenly filing the paperwork in Australian dollars instead of the foreign currency, distorting the exchange rate used.
There is no suggestion any money was lost, but Defence records state the funds were spent "contrary to Defence procurement policy." The money represents a tiny fraction of the multi-billion-dollar defence procurement budget but raises concerns about how funds are handled.
An unknown number of additional breaches and their costs were redacted from the document. "Yes" boxes confirm corrective action was required on at least eight additional occasions. The paperwork also highlights broader procedural lapses, including an August 2025 breach where staff relied on outdated spending rules, missing a policy change that reduced the manager sign-off threshold from $200,000 to $80,000.
The errors were identified when a new contract management team reviewed previous transactions. "The personnel involved in processing the escalation payment are no longer within the Contract Management Team," the document says, explaining that the current team identified the non-compliance and formally reported it. Officials granted retrospective approval to the $13.3 million in payments on July 10, 2025, roughly two years after the cash went out.
Mr Conroy used the revelations to justify the Albanese government's creation of the newly minted Defence Delivery Group to improve oversight, enforce tighter controls on contracts and get "more bang for the buck for taxpayers." He also laid blame at the feet of the former Liberal government, describing the management of the contract as "a legacy of the former government that outsourced important work."