Malek Fahd among six Islamic schools facing audit after allegations relating to misuse of funding

AUSTRALIA’S largest Islamic School in Sydney will be have every aspect of its business examined by auditors to determine if any profits have been made at the expense of the taxpayer.

AUSTRALIA’S largest Islamic School in Sydney will be forced to make its entire accounting system and expenditure of taxpayer funding available when the school is audited next Wednesday.

Education Minister Christopher Pyne yesterday confirmed an audit of six schools run by the Australian Federation of Islamic Council (AFIC) after allegations relating to the misuse of government funding.

Sydney’s Malek Fahd, which has three campuses, will have every aspect of its business, including bank statements, invoices and loan repayments examined by ­Deloitte auditors to determine if any profits had been made at the expense of the taxpayer.

Students leaving the Malek Fahd Islamic school in Greenacre. The Sydney school will be audited on Wednesday. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph have ­revealed the school must make “full and free” access available of every single ­financial document associated with the facility. “All books and records relating to recurrent grant, capital grant and building the education revolution funding arrangements are to be made available for the duration of the site visit to the school,’’ the document says. In 2012 the school was ordered to pay $9 million after it was revealed profits had been funnelled to the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils.

Sydney’s Malek Fahd, which has three campuses, will have every aspect of its business examined by ­Deloitte auditors to determine if any profits had been made at the expense of the taxpayer.

The NSW Board of Studies ordered the school not to be registered for 2014, before that decision was overturned.

Spokesman for both the school and AFIC, Amjad Ali Mehboob, said the organisation had nothing to hide and welcome Mr Pyne’s investigation. He described the audit as resulting from “outrageous claims” from a disgruntled ­individual and said the school had been “very transparent” and they had nothing to hide.

“Well we welcome the audit because there’s been a lot of hype in the media about many outrageous allegations that are not good for the kids. And not the parents nor the school community,’’ he said.