The Department issued an apology to all five people

Freedom of Information documents obtained by the NT News reveal the federal health department wrongly issued invoices to several people for non-existent stints at the Howard Springs quarantine facility in the span of a few weeks.

THE federal health department wrongly issued invoices to five people for non-existent stints at Darwin’s premier COVID-19 quarantine facility in the space of six weeks, documents have revealed.

In a major bungle, the department also made three of those errors in just one day, sending invoices of $2500 to people who had not stayed at Howard Springs nor were they ever scheduled to.

In March it was revealed an Australian man living in the United Kingdom had been issued an invoice for a stint at the Howard Springs quarantine facility despite never staying there.

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Now, freedom of information documents obtained by the NT News have revealed the man was one of three people to be wrongly issued an invoice on March 24, with two others being mistakenly billed on February 22 and February 12 respectively.

The federal health department confirmed it had investigated each error but did not say what had caused the bungle in the first place.

“The team has met and have made changes to the way we examine all the information available to us to ensure we are showing due diligence when issuing invoices,” a health spokesman said in a statement.

“In each case, the Department investigated why the issue had occurred and took the necessary action to cancel the incorrect invoices.

“The Department issued an apology to all five people in response to their initial contact email/phone call.”

In total, the department made five errors between March 1, 2020, and April 26, 2021 out of 1496 invoices it had issued in that time.

NT Senator Malarndirri McCarthy slammed the federal government for “mishandling and bungling” Australia’s international quarantine program “from the beginning” of the pandemic.

“Tuesday’s budget revealed no funding for a national quarantine centre, instead they rely on the Northern Territory and others states to take control,” she said.

It comes as Qantas, which runs the repatriation flights to the facility, launched a review into its coronavirus screening process following reports that three Australians bumped off the first repatriation flight from India due to positive tests have since tested negative to coronavirus.

The half-empty mercy flight landed in Darwin on Saturday, with just 80 of a possible 150 passengers on board, after dozens tested positive or were identified as close contacts shortly before departing New Delhi.