A lavish $44,000 taxpayer-funded trip to China which included first class airfares, prostitutes and expensive scotch is being investigated by the immigration department.
A departmental officer and three subcontractors travelled to Beijing and Shanghai in June last year to inspect a factory supplying pre-fabricated housing for the Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea.
The men reportedly spent only half-an-hour at the factory.
Department secretary Michael Pezzullo says he has not personally seen the invoices from the trip which reportedly cost nearly $44,000.
"I've seen the allegations and they are being dealt with," he told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra.
A internal review is underway, although department officials could not say when it began.
The department says it was aware of the allegations prior to media reports earlier this month.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young asked whether it was usual for such business trips to involve "expensive bottles of whiskey and call girls"?
Mr Pezzullo said if his officer was found to have engaged in such behaviour, he would be disciplined.
The department said the cost of the trip was part of contractual arrangements with subcontractors.
"I'm not sure there would an invoice for that specific trip," senior departmental officer John Cahill told the hearing, adding the department secretary usually signed off on overseas travel.
The hearing was told there was an ongoing dispute between a primary contractor and a sub-contractor.
Mr Pezzullo said the allegation of "junketeering" had been drawn to the department's attention in January and his staff had seen the invoices.
He expects the internal review to be finalised soon.
The department would determine whether it had made the payment and if so, how it could recover the money.
Mr Pezzullo said there were audits and project managers in place to ensure contractors spent taxpayer money properly.
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