Charles Sturt University has denied allegations of fraud and systemic financial management issues after a Nationals minister called out the institution under parliamentary privilege.
Minister for Decentralisation and Regional Education Andrew Gee told the Federation Chamber that the chancellor had flagged with him "a litany of systemic issues that required investigation", including CSU not being able to account for the number of vehicles in its fleet and timesheets for overtime being submitted up to 12 months after work had been purportedly carried out.
Mr Gee said the chancellor had also raised allegations of apparent fraud against individuals who were not named to him and possible referrals to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.
A CSU spokesman said these matters, which had been shared on a private and confidential basis, had been internally detected, investigated and closed out, and the university was aware of how many cars it owned.
In June the university's council passed a resolution to conduct the audit and provide a report to the Australian and NSW governments.
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Mr Gee told the chamber that this report remained a secret and that staff, former staff, students and the community were deeply concerned about veracity of financial data published by CSU.
"Now is the time for CSU to act. It's time to live up to its commitments by providing the report and giving the communities which CSU serves confidence about its future."
The spokesman said Mr Gee was the only person dissatisfied with the university's approach to outlining the details of the report and the minister had cancelled a meeting at short notice where he would have had the chance to be walked through the full report.
"Charles Sturt is disappointed minister Gee chose not to attend and instead made allegations under the cover of Parliamentary privilege using disclosed information given to him in good faith," the spokesman said.