New South Wales Muslim Cleric Liar
Lying cleric sacked from school canteen
The New South Wales Government has revealed that an Islamic cleric, who lied about his name and criminal past to prison authorities, has been working as a school canteen manager.
State Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt says the Department of Education today cancelled a contract issued to Amwar Hisam Al Barq to provide canteen services after becoming aware through media reports of his prior criminal conviction in the United States on drugs charges.
Ms Tebbutt says he tendered for and was awarded the contract last month.
She says she has also asked the director-general to investigate the matter and report on the appropriateness of the department's criminal checks.
The Opposition has also used Parliament to question whether the State Government put political pressure on prison authorities to keep employing the cleric.
Mr Barq was removed from his position after it was revealed he had not used his real name and had a criminal record.
Opposition Leader Peter Debnam has taken issue with the statement that there was no evidence of links to terrorist groups.
"[On the] 15th of March, intelligence reports note and I quote, 'Al Barq's known associations with groups and persons with links to terrorist groups and activities' unquote. Why do you continue to cover up what was obviously political pressure to allow this Muslim cleric unsupervised access to New South Wales prisons?" he said.
The Opposition has also released a memo from a prison governor who said he had to continue to allow prisoner access as refusal of entry might cause an unnecessary political storm.
Premier Morris Iemma says a review will decide whether checking procedures will be upgraded
"It is clear that the department needs to do more to ensure that people with rights to visit the jails have cleared comprehensive security checks," he said.
Mr al Barq says the suggestions he has terrorist links are ridiculous.
He says he did not have to reveal his drug conviction because it occurred more than 10 years before his application to work in the prison system, but the NSW Corrective services Department disputes that.