One of Western Australia's largest and most asset-rich Aboriginal community-controlled organisations has been issued an order by Federal authorities to open its books.
The Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC) in early April issued the Southern Aboriginal Corporation a Notice of Examination under the CATSI Act for NSW-based external auditors Hall Chadwick to examine its financial records.
SAC is a not-for-profit organisation established in 1983 to support and represent the interests and aspirations of the Noongar community within the Great Southern, South West, Wheatbelt and Perth regions of WA, an area covering more than 120,000 sqkm and more than 5000 Indigenous people across local communities including Bunbury, Denmark, Kojonup, and Albany - where the organisation run by chief executive Asha Bhat is based.
Ms Bhat has received several honours for her work at SAC, including a 2017 Albany Citizen of the Year Award, a 2020 Telstra WA Business Women's Awards finalist, an Order of Australia Medal in 2022, the 2024 Australian Award for Excellence in Women's Leadership (WA).
SAC refused a request from National Indigenous Times for details on participation rates or community feedback for its various programs, instead emailing a publicly-available 2022/23 financial report, which contained a list of various community service programs it funded that financial year.
Ms Bhat told National Indigenous Times via her lawyers that she was unaware of concerns over SAC's governance, or delivery of services and programs to Noongar communities.
"SAC is continually improving and evolving and must be responsive to the examiner's findings," she said.
"My aim is to strengthen Aboriginal leadership within SAC and build the next generation leaders to lead the corporation."
SAC was previously investigated by ORIC over its corporate governance and financial management between July 2012 and October 2014. That external audit uncovered several incidents of non-compliance, including recording the cancellation of SAC members, and irregular monitoring from directors of the corporation's financial position and financial performance, as well as the management of its rental properties.
SAC's other major service is providing affordable housing for Noongar people across the 16 communities.
The organisation currently owns more than 60 properties throughout southern WA, valued at almost $23million, as well as 4,500 hectares of farmland near Wandering, and 1,600 hectares at Marribank, near Katanning, with both properties on land formerly gazetted as Noongar reserves.