A former employee of women and migrant rights activist Eman Sharobeem has told the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) she was ordered to “alter” figures and falsify records about publicly funded community programs.
Marie Abboud, a paid administrator and facilitator at the Immigrant Women’s Health Service (IWHS) from the beginning of Eman Sharobeem’s tenure as CEO from 2004, told ICAC Ms Sharobeem told her to add a list of programs to the IWHS database which never existed.
The allegedly fake list included healthy schools and community engagement programs that ran 50 sessions a year each, as well as girls' health and women’s education classes.
When asked by Counsel assisting the Commission, Ramesh Rajalingam, which of those groups ever existed, Mrs Abboud said "none of them".
“Did Ms Sharobeem ever ask you to alter figures in the database?” Mr Rajlingam asked.
"Yes," responded Mrs Abboud.
A copy of the IWHS Annual Report from 2008/2009 was submitted as evidence, with the commission hearing group numbers were also highly inflated.
The report claimed 9,739 women attended weekly groups during that period, breaking down the number of women from each cultural group. Among the list, it stated 800 women participated in Assyrian groups, 670 in Arabic classes, and involvement of 350 from Swahili backgrounds.
"Did these people attend?” Mr Rajalingam asked.
“No," responded Mrs Abboud.
"No more than 22 (for Assyrian)... No more than 20 (for Arabic)."
The report also stated that there were 1960 participants for yoga classes across both IWHS offices in Fairfield and Cabramatta, which Mrs Abboud said she was stunned by.
"No, not even 20 (people attended)," she told the commission.
Marie Abboud, who was paid between $18-22 an hour during her time at IWHS, also told the commission she did not recognise the names of many facilitators on a list of invoices.
She said she became "suspicious about these groups", and along with fellow employee Watfa el-Baf, sent an email to the NSW Department of Health to express their “concern” about “what was happening”. But Mrs Abboud could not recall if they received follow up assistance from the department.
Mrs Abboud said she never saw Ms Sharobeem help during the programs or facilitate groups, and added she never assisted with any IWHS programs.
Earlier in the day, former IWHS board member Dalila Peredo spoke of brief tenure as treasurer of the service between 2004 and 2005.
Mrs Peredo, whose broken English proved difficult at times for counsel to understand, said she told Ms Sharobeem she was uncertain about what the role of treasurer entailed.
"You don’t need to do anything, you just sign the cheques when required," she said Ms Sharobeem told her.
Ms Peredo added she signed "six or seven (cheques)… for the centre and salary to pay the workers” during her time, and never signed a blank cheque.
Eman Sharobeem, a former SBS community engagement manager and Australian of the Year NSW finalist, has been ordered to face the two week inquiry, which on Monday heard allegations she rorted almost $700,000 in public funds while in charge of two NGOs.
During his opening address on Monday, Mr Rajalingam also claimed "Ms Sharobeem does not hold a doctorate nor is she registered to practice as a psychologist. She has never completed a master’s degree".
On Tuesday, Mrs Abboud said when she asked Ms Sharobeem to hang her degrees up on the wall, Ms Sharobeem refused.
"She said no I don’t like publicity," Mrs Abboud told the hearing.
Ms Sharobeem will have a chance to address the allegations when she takes the stand next week.
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