“The agent was named in[Australian Border Force] Operation Resonate in November 2020 in relation to migration agents facilitating the exploitation of foreign national sex workers,” the watchdog reported on Wednesday.

“In dismissing the complaint,the department did not address all of the relevant substantive matters related to the complaint …[and] it did not address the allegations identified in Operation Resonate.”

The auditor-general noted that while the department did not prepare a “case investigation summary” for its officers,it did prepare a “media-handling strategy”.

The office also found the department used an automated process to renew the registration of agents,approving multiple agents who were subject to complaints of fraudulent behaviour.

In other examples,the department took five years to dismiss a complaint against an agent facing several accusations of aiding false protection claims,and also dismissed complaints against an agent relating to cash-for-visa arrangements due to a minor technicality in the process.

In October,O’Neil announced a $50 million injection into the department to boost its ability to monitor compliance,a move to strengthen the fit-and-proper-person test for registered migration agents,and said the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority’s ability to sanction agents would be improved.

Labor MP Julian Hill,chair of the cross-parliamentary committee on public accounts and audits,said the revelations in the auditor-general’s report warranted a public inquiry,adding his constituents had been the victims of shoddy advice from migration agents.

“We’ve inherited both[a] migration system and department underfunded and riddled with integrity issues,” Hill said.

In her response to the report,Home Affairs secretary Stephanie Foster agreed the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority had scope to strengthen but disagreed that the office didn’t effectively respond to complaints. “Allegations of non-compliance,even when serious integrity concerns may be alleged through intelligence reporting,are not conclusive evidence that OMARA can immediately use to prove … that the agent had engaged in misconduct,” she said.

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