TENS of millions of dollars in Australian government aviation contracts have been awarded to companies that secured their bids with inside information about tenders provided by senior public servants.

Confidential emails obtained by The Age reveal two Defence Department officers working in the unit responsible for a $30-million-a-year contract to fly Australian troops to the Middle East were providing information during the tender process to the company later declared the winner.

The two Defence officials, Army Reserve captain and aviation consultant David Charlton and army warrant officer John Davies, were then given senior management jobs by the 2005 contract winner, Strategic Aviation, which has provided the troop flights to Kuwait since then.

Of course, all of this happened from 2005-2007 - during the Howard years.