Celebrating Winners

In a special event held today, two groups of our students were invited to receive appreciation from the Dean, Faculty of Accountancy, Prof Dr Ibrahim Kamal Abdul Rahman. The first group of students comprised those who participated in the recent Money Tree YES Challanege, of which the students won the Grand Prize Award and a Throphy. The second group were students from the Public Sector Accounting course who organized the "Kami Prihatin" event which caught the attention of Dato' Seri Shahrizat Jali. What was initially meant as an in-class event was "upgraded" as a national event with more than 2,000 participants. Well done boys and girls, we are very proud of all of you....

Another Round of Rasch Model Course

ARI invited Mr Saidfuddin, a Rasch Model expert to facilitate us with the research analysis of one of ARI research projects titled " A Survey on the Importance and Usage of Financial Statement Fraud Risk Red Flags by Malaysian Auditors". The study explores the application of the International Standard onAuditing 240 (ISA240) - The Auditor's Responsibility to Consider Fraud in an Audit of Financial Statement.
ISA 240 distinguishes fraud from error and describes the two types of fraud that are relevant to auditor - misstatements resulting from misappropriation of assets and misstatements resulting from fraudulent financial reporting. ARI received responses from three groups of suditors: external auditors, internal auditors and government auditors. One of the most interesting finding implicates that auditors play a very important role in preventing and detecting financial statement fraud. If the ISA 240 standard is being followed and adhered to very strictly, auditors may be able to mitigate such fraud at an astonishing rate of 84%....

ARI TAX KIOSK

Congratulations to Associate Prof Dr Rohaya Mohd Noor and her team from the Taxation Research Group for organizing a two-day ARI Tax Kiosk on 27 to 28 April 2011. The event is part of our corporate social responsibility (CSR) to the UiTM community. Basically, the team provides professional advice in term of highlighting what expenditures are deductible and what items are tax-exempted. At the same time, tax payers may want to submit their returns through the online mode. ARI provides networked computers and printers to facilitate participants with their online submission. Yes, the deadline to submit our income tax return is on 30th April 2011, so those who did not have the opportunity to submit theirs yet, you may want to get professional advice from our very experienced tax lecturers. We also wish to thank four officers from the Inland Revenue Board who took part in this event to help taxpayers make their submission. ARI TAX KIOSK is an annual event. This year, ARI, in collaboration with the Faculty of Accountancy have also organized another Tax Kiosk in UiTM Perak. Thank you all for doing great things for the community....

VC Luncheon in Appreciation of Sponsors

The Accounting Research Institute and the Faculty of Accountancy wish to thank the Vice Chancellor of Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Dato' Professor Ir Dr Sahol Hamid for attending and addressing the VC Luncheon held at UiTM Hotel on 27th April 2011. The luncheon was held to honour and thank all professional and corporate sponsors who participated in a recent student dinner event organized by the Association of Professional Students Association, UiTM. Among the guests who attended the luncheon were Dato' Johan Raslan, Executive Chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers; Nizar Najib, Executive Director Deloitte & Touche; Irene, CIMA; Zulkeefli, Air Asia; Shazani, UEM and other representatives from Puspakom, ACCA, Bank Simpanan Nasional, Maybank Berhad, Takaful. The Vice Chancellor thanked all the sponsors and hope they will continue to support us. Thanks to Prof Dr Azni Zain Ahmed, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic & Internationalization) for taking time off her busy schedule to joib us for lunch. Congratulations and well done to Associate Professor Mahfudzah Mohamed, Puan Roslina Rahim and the President of the Association of Professional Accounting...

PhD Defence

Several of our PhD students presented their PhD proposal today at the Institute of Post-Graduate Studies (IPSIS) office in Shah Alam. Congratulations all for doing a great job. Once the proposal is approved, candidates should work on their research instruments. They should also be working on writing some conceptual papers from their research. Since the new semester begins in September, PhD students should make full use of the long "break" to work closely with their supervisors or to present papers at PhD colloquium...

Seminar on Specialized Industry and IT Audit

The Audit and Assurance Special Interest Group will be organizing a half-day SEMINAR ON THE LATEST REFORM IN AUDITING (SPECIALIZED INDUSTRY AND IT AUDIT)on 28 April 2011 (Thursday). Time: 8:00am – 1:00pm and Venue: Dewan Seminar, Menara SAAS. Two papers will be presented by audit practitioners. The first paper "The Role of IT Audit in Fraud Detection" will be presented by an auditor and consultant, Mr Aaron Lau from the AITLAU Management Service. The second paper, "Real Audit Case in a nutshell" will be discussed by Mr Aminuddin Yahaya from Jamal Amin and Partners, an accounting firm. Everyone is invited to attend the seminar. Those interested to attend, please call ARI Office at Tel: 603-5544 4930/4925

Outstanding Paper at IMAC2011

ARI congratulates Associate Prof Dr Zuraidah Mohd Sanusi and her team for being awarded as one of the five outstanding papers at the recent International Management Conference 2011 (IMAC2011) which was held in Terengganu. Her paper titled "External Agency Monitoring Mechanisms and Earnings Management: Towards Improvement of Financial Reporting Quality" was co-authored with Mohamad Shahril Isahak (UiTM)and Zunaidah Sulong from the Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Kuala Terengganu. Dr Zuraidah is the head of ARI's Audit and Assurance special interest group. The five outstanding papers were selected from the 220 papers that have been presented in the conference. Congratulations ....

TEAM FutsalEx Wins YES 3 Challenge

ARI congratulates TEAM FutsalEx from Universiti Teknologi MARA who was recently announced as the grand prize winner of the Maybank MoneyTree Young Entrepreneur Startup (YES 3) Challenge. The "YES 3 Red Carpet" party was held on Friday, 15th April 2011 at the Eastin Hotel, Petaling Jaya. The Grand Prize winner walked away with cash and prizes worth up to RM20,000. Team FutsalEx, consisting of 4 members: Mohd Hafiz bin Mohamad Idris, Syed Qamarul Hikma bin Samat, Fatin Hanani Khairunnizam and Amirul Hafis are all students from the Faculty of Accountancy, UiTM. The team won the challenge by impressing the judges with their idea of a web portal-based "one-stop futsal centre" concept, which integrates futsal players, futsal centres and the fulsal industry. Being the first one-stop futsal centre, FutsalEx offers a whole new and fun system of playing futsal where "Futsalers" can make online bookings. Congratulations all, we are very proud of you....

Adjunct Professor from MACC

ARI wishes to welcome Y. Bhg. Dato' Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Chief Commissioner, as a newly appointed Adjunct Professor for the Accounting Research Institute and the Faculty of Accountancy, Universiti Teknologi MARA in Shah Alam. ARI hopes that this appointment will bring closer the two institutions: UiTM and MACC. In its effort to enhance research in financial criminology, ARI hopes to work closely with MACC and other enforcement agencies in this country. Our collaboration started way back in 2002 when UiTM and MACC (then known as the Anti Corruption Agency or ACA) organized several cohorts of CPD training in Forensic Accounting. One of our senior professors, Prof Dr Syed Noh Syed Ahmad is also a member of MACC's Operations Evaluation Panel (PPO).

Congratulations Prof Dr Nora'zam Mastuki

ARI wishes to congratulate our colleague, Dr Nora'zam Mastuki who has been promoted recently as a Professor in Accounting Information System. Prof Nora'zam is basically the "IT Guy" for the Faculty of Accountancy. He has been teaching accounting information system since he joined UiTM in the late 1980s. Currently, his research interest includes earnings management and dividend policy. Prof Dr Nora'zam is the ninth professor for the faculty. Congratulations, we are very proud of you.

Our Journals in ERA Listing by ARC

ARI wishes to inform members that three of our journals: Malaysian Accounting Review (MAR), Asia-Pacific Management Accounting Journal (APMAJ) and Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting (JOFRA)* are in the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) Ranked Journal list. ERA is basically an initiative by the Australian Research Council (ARC) in promoting research and publication. Now that our journals are listed in ERA, our next course of action is to further improve on the frequency of journal publication and to promote the journals to other authors in different continents. (*Note: since June 2010, the Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting has been acquired by the Emerald publication Group UK, hence, the ownership has been effectively transfered to the company).

Continued Vigilance

It was quite a shocking newspaper headline on Star Online last week that said "Now Even Postmen are Involved in Credit Card Fraud"?. The Kuala Lumpur police have arrested 13 people including seven postmen for involving in a credit card fraud syndicate in the Klang Valley amounting to about RM500,000. The postmen are believed to have intercepted new credit cards from the mail, switched the credit card chips, before going on a spending spree. City deputy police chief Senior Asst Commissioner Datuk Amar Singh told reporters at the IPD Cheras that the syndicate had been in operation since 2009. The police believe that the syndicate had used the credit cards to purchase luxury items including electronic goods. As consumers, we have to be vigilant at all time. One of the initiatives to be taken by Bank Negara will include the recently announced transaction alerts via Short Messaging Service (SMS) which are sent by card issuers to cardholders after transactions are performed.

Understanding MyRA

As part of the Malaysia Higher Institutions' Strategic Plan (PSPTN) of promoting research and innovation, the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE)introduced the MyRA instrument in 2006 and further improved it in 2009. MyRA which stands for Malaysia Research Assessment Instrument is used to assess the research performance of (i) APEX University (ii) Research Universities (RUs) and (iii) Higher Institutions' Centre of Excellence (HICoE). Effective 2009, all other universities are also required to self-assess and submit annually, their MyRA score to MOHE. MyRA is divided into nine sections (A to I). Section A is General Information, where universities and centres of excellence must list information related to (i) Number of Academic Staff, (ii) Total number of fulltime students and (iii) Number of centres/institutes that receive their own operational budget. Section B provides details on the aspects of Quantity & Quality of Researchers. Section C details out the information on Quantity & Quality of Research. Section D focuses on the Quantity of Postgraduates (Master & PhD by Research). Section E elaborates on theQuality of Postgraduates. Section F promotes Innovation & Intellectual Property. Section G details out income generation activities through Professional Services and Gifts/Endownment. Section H lists all the Networking and Linkages being successfully forged by the universities and CoEs. Section I highlights all the Support Services available to to universities and coes. Details components and glossary for all items encompassed by MyRA can be accessed at www.portal.mohe.gov.

ARI to Co-Organize IFCTF 2011

ARI has been invited by the Financial Intelligence Unit of Bank Negara Malaysia to jointly organize the forthcoming International Conference on Financial Crime and Terrorism Financing 2011 (IFCTF 2011), which is scheduled to be held sometime later this year. The two main organizers of IFCTF are the Compliance Officer Networking Group (CONG) and the Institut Bank-Bank Malaysia (IBBM). Meanwhile, Bank Negara Malaysia supports the event. ARI is greatly honoured by such invitation as this would greatly complement our own annual International Conference on Financial Criminology (ICFC). Whilst ICFC focuses on research findings, IFCTF brings together the pratitioners' views and experiences. The organizing of both conferences are in tandem with ARI's research thrust in Islamic Financial Criminology. ARI hopes to work on a lot of publication in this area.

Third HICoE Meeting at INFORMM

All six HICoEs met today in Kota Bharu. The third HICoE meeting was hosted by INFORMM from Universiti Sains Malaysia. As planned in our previous January meeting at UMPEDAC, the HICoE published its first Bulletin. Thank you UMBI for coordinating the data collection from all members and to facilitate with the publication. Great job. The meeting today basically addressed on the need for the HICoEs to collaborate with one another. Two examples of collaboration being mentioned in the meeting were firstly, the joint-postgraduate conference between INFORMM and UMBI which was held on 13th to 14th April 2011 in Kota Bharu. The second collaborative work is the joint-research project between ARI and INFORMM. The research on "Cost Effectiveness of Harm Reduction Program for HIV" is currently ongoing and ARI is confident that it can contribute significantly to the body of knowledge by introducing some accounting-based cost-benefit analysis to the project. ARI further offered itself to the other HICoEs as possible research collaboration partner. The meeting has also decided that ARI will host the fourth HICoE meeting in July 2011. UMPEDAC is also tasked with the publication of the second HICoE Bulletin in July. The focus of our second HICoE Bulletin is to highlight preliminary findings of at least one HICoE fundamental research. Congratulations everyone, see you all in Shah Alam...

Meeting Charity Organisations in Kelantan

ARI wishes to thank all the participants from various charity organisations in Kelantan who took part in our focus group discussion today. The meeting, which was held at the SAHABAT office in Kota Bharu was coordinated by our counterparts from INFORMM HICoE. The program is part of the two HICoEs' (ARI and INFORMM) community project.
ARI's three research fellows, namely Associate Professor Dr Nizal, Dr Radiah and Dr Norli facilitated the meeting. Basically, the main purpose of the meeting was to identify problems and challenges often faced by charity organisation when managing and reporting their financial transactions. It was basically addressed by participants that they need specific training in financial management and in financial reporting.
Some of the charity organisations who took part in the meeting have also mentioned that they are in dire need of the right personnel to help them carry out their activities. Another challenge was in getting funding from corporate or individual donors and philanthropists so that they can do more community works for the needy...

PSARC Course with IPN

ARI wishes to congratulate the Public Sector Accounting Research Centre (PSARC) for its success in conducting a financial reporting course for government officers and accountants at the Institut Perakaunan Negara (IPN). PSARC Head, Associate Professor Dr Nafsiah Mohammed and another PSARC senior member, Associate Professor Dr Ruhaya Atan successfully conducated a workshop on "Awareness on Accrual accounting" to government officers at the Institut Perakaunan Negara (IPN)campus in Sabak Bernam. Due to their impressive performance, IPN has appointed them to conduct the same course from 27-28 April 2011. As the Accountants General Office (AGO) will be converging towards Accrual Accounting, the demand for such course is expected to be high, hence ARI expects that there will be more workshops to come. The Accountant General Office will brief PSARC on their plans in the near future. AP Dr Nafsiah and AP DR Ruhaya have also been invited to give a 1-day workshop on "Forensic Accounting in Public Sector" on 18 April 2011. Congratulations PSARC, Dr Nafsiah and Dr Ruhaya.

CoE Initiatives

Today, ARI hosted a one-day workshop and briefings of the 10th Malaysia Plan (RMK10) for centres of excellence in UiTM. The briefing and workshop were facilitated by officers from the Strategic Planning Unit of the university. Premised on eighteen critical agenda and seven key performance indicators, ten centres of excellence came in full force to support the university's RMK10 initiatives. The ten COEs that attended the meeting were namely: ARI, Institute of Business Excellence (IBE), Malaysia Institute of Transport (MITRANS), Institute of Science (IOS), IKAZ, CADEM, RIND,NDBPITR, Institute of Forensic Science (IFS), IIESM. Essentially, each COE were required to come out with between 5-7 initiatives that would cover important Myra dimensions namely publication in journals indexed with scopus & ISI, PhD students & graduates, external grants, innovation, international linkages & collaboration. The good thing about the initiatives is the monitoring of progress which is linked to the university UEPMO system

UiTM Professorial Council

In tandem with the Ministry of Higher Education's (MOHE) move of forming the Malaysian Professorial Council in April 2010, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), through its own Council of Professors has initiated several programs that could showcase the professors' own expertise, hence putting the university on the worldmap. One of the initiatives is the establishment of the Professorial Discourse Series. The inaugural event took place yesterday with two professors taking centrestage to discuss their views on the roles of professors in nation building. The first two professors who volunteered to lead the way was UiTM Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic and Internationalisation) and Prof Dato' Dr Khalid Yusof, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. Whilst Prof Azni propagates the promotion of the professors' own scholarship and "learnedness" to the world, Prof Dato' Dr Khalid acknowledges the importance of bringing the world's renowned professors to UiTM, and they in turn will recognize and take note of our presence. In both situations, the importance of international collaboration is key to our success of putting UiTM on the worldmap. 2011 will see ARI forging a lot of international research collaboration with world best in our niche area of Islamic Financial Criminology. This is in our own small way helps to put UiTM on the worldmap....

Thank You AG & IIA

The success of any accounting research will very much dependent on the collaboration and cooperation offered by accounting professionals and practitioners out there in the industry. One of ARI's research projects requires the involvement of three groups of auditors namely government auditors, internal auditors and external auditors. The project entitled "The Effectiveness and Usage of Fraud Risk Indicators in the Audit of Financial Statement". For Malaysian auditors, they are governed by the requirements of the International Auditing Standard No. 240 (IAS 240) - Auditors Responsibility to Consider Fraud in Financial Statement Audit. Hence the research project requires auditors to cooperate with ARI by aswering a set of questionnaires. The Auditor General Office in Putrajaya (representing the government auditors) as well as the Institute of Internal Audit (representing the internal audits) have already indicated their commitment to facilitate our research. Today, ARI handed over some questionnaires to both AG and IIA offices. Thank you very much for your kind cooperation. May this exemplary cooperation be an example to all practitioners and accounting professional bodies. Thank you...

Specialized PhD Program at ARI

Consistent with the available expertise at ARI research centres and SIGs, prospective PhD candidates can choose to enrol in their PhD program in any of the following area of specialisation:
* Forensic Accounting
* Financial Criminology
* Islamic Accounting
* Anti-Money Laundering & Counter Terrorist Financing
* Islamic Financial Criminology
* Shariah Auditing
* Audit and Assurance
* Accounting in Specialized Industries
* Fraud Risk Management
* Management Accounting
* Financial Reporting
* Corporate Governance
* Enterprise Governance
* Performance and Compliance
* Performance Measurement System
* Sustainability Accounting
* CSR Reporting
* Accounting Standards
* Knowledge Management & Intellectual Capital
* Public Sector Accounting
* Accounting Information System
* SME/GLC-Related Research
* Accounting Education
* Financial Management and the Capital Market
* Accounting in Service Industry

UK Research Collaborations

It was really heartening to hear some very good news from Prof Dr Rashidah, ARI Deputy Director, who is now in Conpenhagen attending a training on Financial Criminology - i.e. learning new methodologies to analyse data on financial crime and learning new tools or mechanisms for fraud prevention. On her way to Conpenhagen, Prof Rashidah visited four universities in the United Kingdom. The aim of the visit was basically to find opportunities for the Accounting Research Institute (ARI)and Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)to develop academic and research network with some renowned universities there. Her first stop was University of Dundee on 29th March, 2011. There she met up with Dr Rania Kamla, an expert in Islamic Accounting, so there is a possibility of joint research with her and her colleague. On 31st March, Prof Rashidah met up with Dr Mehmet from Durham University. Dr Mehmet is from the Durham Islamic Finance Program, which is run under the auspicious of the Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at Durham University. Again, there's a great potential for research collaboration between ARI and Durham. Later that afternoon, Prof Shidah had a discussion with Dr Amneya Abdelsalam, Director of the Islamic Finance and Business School Centre, Aston Business School. Her last stop was at the Oxford University where she met up with Dr Farhan Ahmad Nizami, the Director of Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Again, there's a great interest for the Centre to work closely with ARI on Waqf research. Congratulations and well done Prof Shidah

ARI Meeting with FIU & CONG

ARI's research and training collaboration with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Bank Negara Malaysia and the Malaysian Compliance Officer Networking Group (CONG)may go a step further to form a consortium for the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML-CFT)for Malaysia. The trio is looking for other possible partners to strengthen Malaysia's research and training capabilities in this area. The proposed consortium partners will work on each other's strength to foster a resourceful private-public research & training collaboration. Working together with a competent authority such as FIU and with AML-CFT practitioners from the financial institutions is certainly a way forward to propagate research in this area. The Accounting Research Institute is hoping to become a leading research institute and a global reference centre in terms of research and training in the area of Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism. ARI's other international partners include the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS), the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR) and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE).

UiTM to Host PECIPTA 2011

PECIPTA has indeed created a presence in Malaysia. It is a research exposition launched by the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) in 2001. To date, MOHE has co-organized the event with five public universities. Held every two years since 2001, Universiti Teknologi MARA will be the proud host for PECIPTA 2011. PECIPTA (or initially known as IPTA Exposition)was held for the first time in 2001 and hosted by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).
The second exposition was organised and hosted by Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) in 2003. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia hosted the fourth expo in 2005. This was followed in 2007 when Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) hosted the event and proposed a name change to PECIPTA (2007). The last event was hosted by the University of Malaya in 2009. Celebrating research, PECIPTA 2011 will be held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) on 13-15 September 2011. Aiming for a rich harvest of research, innovation and inventions, PECIPTA 2011 is offering a new competition category, a Junior Inventor Category, trusting that this new category will invigorate budding minds to invent. Apart from exhibiting research, PECIPTA 2011 plans to hold a Intelligent Car Model Competition. With much more interesting things in store, the Assessment Committee (UiTM level)that is chaired by Prof Dr Azni Zain Ahmed, met today for the first time to review the proposed agenda for the event and to discuss assessment criteria. Once the proposed agenda and criteria are agreed upon at the host university's level, a bigger committee comprising representatives from other universities will be established. Subsequently, more meetings will be held so as to ensure that the final event at KLCC will run smoothly.

Working Visit to ITU, Universiti Utara Malaysia

ARI wishes to thank Associate Professor Dr Wan Rozaimi Sheik Osman, Director, ITU-UUM Asia Pacific Centre of Excellence,and her "die-hard" members for inviting ARI Director, Professor Dr Normah Omar to share ARI's experiences as a Higher Institutions' Centre of Excellence (HICoE). There are indeed a lot of similarities between ITU-UUM CoE and ARI. Both are centres of excellence of two different public universities. But we share the same vision and aspiration of wanting to become a global player in our respective fields. Whilst ARI is focused in its niche research in Islamic Financial Criminology, ITU-UUM aspires to champion research and training in Rural ICT Development Programme for developing countries. ITU-UUM wishes to prepare itself on what is required to qualify as a HICoE. ITU-UUM started its operation on 2 January 2007. The Centre serves as the focal point for all rural ICT development initiatives across Asia Pacific region. Their core businesses and activities include: providing executive training programs; developing knowledge repository: research & development and consultancy services. Currently, ITU-UUM's theme of ICT development includes the following:(i) Applications & Services (e-government, e-entertainment, e-democracy, Digital Literacy);(ii)Policies & Regulations (developing National Plans & Policies, Intellectual Properties, genders issues; (iii)Technology (wired and wireless, broadband, network management and operation). ARI believes that ITU-UUM has great potentials in leading research and training in Rural ICT Development Programme...

Business Start-Up Fund at UiTM

The university is once again honoured by the presence of the Honorable Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to launch the Business Start-Up Fund (BSF)in Universiti Teknologi MARA. A RM100mil fund has been set up to help develop technology entrepreneurs and new start-up companies. The BSF would be managed by the Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC).
The honourable Prime Minister reiterated that the BSF is one of the Government initiatives to help entrepreneurs develop innovative products with market potential. At the same event, the prime minister witnessed the exchange of a memorandum of agreement between UiTM and MTDC to build a Technopreneur Centre for the university's campus in Shah Alam. Among those present at the event include the Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, UiTM Vice Chancellor Dato' Prof Ir Sahol Hamid Abu Bakar and MTDC Chief Executive Officer Norhalim Yunus.