US private prisons operator to be paid $790m to hold 100 people on Nauru in quiet expansion of contract

A sixteenfold increase in the original contract without public notification raises allegations of gross mismanagement' and a process run out of control'

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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.