Sydney school accused of funnelling public money to Muslim charity

A Western Sydney school is facing deregistration amid allegations it has been funnelling public education money to a Muslim charity.

A Western Sydney religious school is at risk of deregistration amid allegations it has been funnelling public education money to a Muslim charity.

A “please explain” notice is set to be issued to Al Sadiq College after a recommendation from a not-for-profit advisory committee comprising NSW Department of Education, and independent and Catholic schools representatives, which had uncovered alleged discrepancies in the school’s accounts over a two-year period from 2015.

Al Sadiq College’s Yagoona campus. Picture: Google

The discrepancies include payments to its governing charity — the Moslem Alawy Society Inc — which lists its objectives as “establishing and maintaining a mosque”, providing “activities and events” to ethnic communities to “help them settle in Australia”, and “co-ordinating Moslem Alawy assistance programs as well as facilitating a NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) accredited school”.

A departmental source said the school is alleged to have paid the Lidcombe-based Moslem Alawy Society for property, goods or services that had no relation to the running of the school.

The school is also alleged to have used school funds to make direct cash payments to the society, the source said.

It is also alleged the school was making rental payments “well above market value” to the society to use a property at Waterloo, the source said.

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Along with fees paid by parents, the school, established in 2003, is the recipient of both state and federal grants.

In 2018, it was to receive $11,205 per student in Gonski funding.

The notice, which is understood to have been signed off by Education Minister Rob Stokes on Thursday, indicated the school had been in breach of the Education Act 1990 Section 83(c), which states financial assistance should not be provided to a school that operates for profit.

In 2016, Al Sadiq catered to some 630 students from kindergarten to Year 12 at its campuses in Yagoona and Greenacre.