A Melbourne printer is at the centre of a $1.5m political corruption scandal, having allegedly paid kickbacks to disgraced Victorian Liberal Party director Damien Mantach.

The printer and mailhouse would allegedly overcharge the party and MPs for direct mail printing and distribution and then pay Mantach part of it under the table.

According to a senior Liberal source speaking to the Herald Sun, the kickbacks accounted for ‘up to half’ the $1.5m a Liberal Party audit last week discovered Mantach had allegedly embezzled between 2010 and 2014.

The newspaper says this included last year’s Victorian state election and the 2013 federal election campaigns.

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Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger yesterday wrote to members advising them of the situation and saying the party has paid back Parliament almost $200,000, with more possible as the police investigation continues.

 “Our own preliminary enquiries seem to point to Mantach having entered into an arrangement with an external mail house whereby Mantach encouraged the mail house to increase invoices for work undertaken for both the party and for some Victorian and Federal Liberal Party MPs, so as to charge more than was actually owing,” he wrote.

He says MPs were unaware of the arrangement and are ‘appalled’ and ‘disgusted’ with the revelations.

The Herald Sun says the printer in question was ‘responsible for much of the printing and distribution of the party’s direct mail for the better part of a decade’ and had been paid millions during that time.

Not only did the money come from the party but also taxpayers in the form of printing allowances for individual state and federal MPs. MPs are said to have used the printer because Mantach told them to and it was easier.

Liberal Party lawyers are said to be due to meet with the printer over the allegations.

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