Auditors are visiting schools run by the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC) across the country today, after concerns were raised about financial management and governance.
AFIC oversees eight schools across Australia, with six of those in Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra, Perth and western Sydney facing the reviews.
Parents who have been staging protests outside the Islamic College of South Australia at Croydon in Adelaide’s north-west for weeks have welcomed the move.
The audit is being carried out by Deloitte, and the South Australian secretary of the Independent Education Union, Glen Seidel, said it had been a long time coming.
“There have been quite a few allegations raised about financial impropriety with AFIC schools in general and the Islamic College of South Australia in particular, and the allegations are quite serious,” he said.
“What we need to do is get to the bottom of these allegations to find out whether there has been wrongdoing or not.”
Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne announced the audit last week to examine the schools’ compliance with the act that provides them with tens of millions of dollars in government funding.
Mr Seidel said former staff members of the South Australian school should be spoken to.
“The four former principals that they’ve had in the last three years - those people know the inner workings of the school,” he said.
“From my professional discussions with them, they’re aware of irregularities but they’re worried about breaching confidentiality terms in their contracts of employment.”
The SA Government has also announced a number of reviews into the school.
It said the school had agreed to an independent review of its governance structures and its complaints policy.
The department will also be investigating the teaching of curriculum and compliance with all aspects of the state’s funding deed with the college.
Parents welcome audit, despite delays
Disgruntled parents have been staging protests outside the school in recent weeks, concerned about staff changes and the direction in which the school had been taken by its board.
Concerns have also been raised about a more hardline approach and about how religious studies were being taught.
The parent of a student at the South Australian college, Bayan Mohammed, welcomed the audit.
“It is all about money and control, so this is beautiful news,” he said.
He said it was frustrating for parents that government reviews had taken so long to be established.
“Other parents noticed [the problems] over two years ago, a lot of parents they have concerns,” he said.
“But coming late is better than never.”
The school and AFIC have repeatedly denied any financial mismanagement.
The school also said Islamic teachings there were “moderate” and taught by well qualified staff.
Six Islamic schools facing audit:
- Islamic College of Brisbane
- Islamic College of Melbourne
- Islamic School of Canberra
- Langford Islamic College (WA)
- Malek Fahd Islamic School (NSW)
- Islamic College of South Australia