Feds unaware of Gonski diversion claims

The federal government won't know until another month whether states spent school money in the right way during 2014.

The Victorian government has accused its predecessor of diverting $50 million away from the neediest schools for which it was earmarked under the Gonski funding plan.

But federal education officials are only aware of the case via media reports.

"It was not brought to my attention by the Victorian government formally," associate secretary Tony Cook told a Senate committee on Thursday.

He's only just asked states and territories to provide audits showing how money for schools was distributed in 2014, as required by law.

Those reports are due with the federal department by the end of June, which Mr Cook said was normal practice because audits weren't done at the end of calendar years.

"It's a significant amount of money though; you just leave it for a year and trust that that goes to the right place?" Labor senator Deb O'Neill asked.

Mr Cook said all governments had made commitments about how the commonwealth money would be spent.

"I have no reason to believe why a government wouldn't actually make a commitment to what they've signed up to," he said.