Canberra Islamic college contracts to family

CANBERRA'S Islamic school awarded more than half a million dollars' worth of contracts to the son-in-law of the school's then chairman.

CANBERRA'S Islamic school awarded more than half a million dollars' worth of contracts to the son-in-law of the school's then chairman and president of the nation's peak Muslim body.

The maintenance and building contracts awarded by the school and its manager, the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, included almost $300,000 direct commonwealth funding for a security fence.

The Australian has obtained documents from AFIC detailing payments worth $636,000 to the company owned by the son-in-law of then AFIC and school board president Ikebal Patel.

Mr Patel says he was not involved in the decisions.

Among the contracts given to Mr Patel's son-in-law, Afraaz Mohammed, was $280,900 of commonwealth money for a security fence - still incomplete - under the Gillard government's Secure Schools program, which gives schools deemed at security risk hundreds of thousands of dollars for fencing.

The school went on to collect another $76,000 for the fence from the ACT government and surrounding property owners - including the Australian National University - bringing the total cost of the unfinished project to $360,628. According to financial records, the school is still claiming another $28,000 from the Attorney-General's Department.

In 2010-11 the school handed over an additional $275,607 to Auz Fix, Mr Mohammed's one-man company, for what was labelled "repair and maintenance jobs".

The amount given to Auz Fix by the school dwarfs other payments made to contractors, the second-largest payment made to another contractor being just over $30,000.

Auz Fix has no listed office or shopfront, its only mailing address being a PO box in Queanbeyan, just outside of Canberra.

The school is managed by AFIC but relies on state and commonwealth grants for its survival, receiving $575,723 from the government last year, or about 60 per cent of its funding.

Mr Patel, spokesman and secretary for AFIC and a director on the school board, was president of AFIC and chairman of the school board at the time the payments were made. Current AFIC president Hafez Kassem is also a director on the school board.

When contacted for comment yesterday, Mr Patel said: "I have no comment other than to state that I have not been involved in the decision-making process."

The document outlining the spending on the $280,000 Secure Schools grant was prepared by the school's then principal, Imam Ali, and states that it was prepared "with input from Mr Ikebal Patel".

Mr Mohammed did not return calls yesterday.

A spokesman for Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare - the minister responsible for the program - confirmed to The Australian that concerns about the spending of the Secure Schools grant at the Canberra Islamic School had been raised with the Attorney-General's Department.

"No further payment will be made to the school until these concerns have been resolved," the spokesman said.

"While these issues are being resolved, it would be inappropriate to provide further details at this time."

The spokesman did not outline details of the auditing of the Secure Schools funds: "All funding under the Secure Schools program is subject to grants management processes that comply with the Commonwealth Grants Guidelines and Australian National Audit Office requirements."

The ACT school is also the subject of a police investigation after forged documents were found in an ACT government application to expand the school.

Australia's largest Muslim school, Malek Fahd in Sydney's southwest - where Mr Patel is also chairman of the board - is under police and ASIC investigation after the NSW government ordered it pay back $9 million in fees paid to AFIC that it concluded were for profit.