ICFC 2011 on TV3

The Accounting Research Institute thanks TV3 for giving us a 15-minute slot in its morning Talk Show program - Malaysia Hari Ini (MHI) and for allowing us to promote the upcoming International Conference on Financial Criminology (ICFC 2011). The conference which is scheduled on 8th and 9th June 2011 will be held at the Pullman Hotel in Putrajaya. Themed "Islamic Accountability and Fraud Risk Management", the conference will be graced and officiated by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Ismail Omar. ICFC 2011 is an annual event and this year makes its fourth year presence. As a Higher Institutions' Centre of Excellence (HICoE), ARI's niche research area is in Islamic Financial Criminology. The main aim of the conference is to provide continued education and to strengthen vigilance on financial criminology. Financial crime if left uncurbed can destroy the economy of any nation. The responsibility to detect and to prevent financial crime lies with each and everyone of us. Renowned speakers will include Ms Hue Dang from the US Association of Certified Anti-Money laundering Specialists (ACAMS), Professor Humayoun Dar (UK), Mr Jean Ward (Hong Kong), Dato' Seri Abu Kassim Mohamed (MACC), Awang Amardajaya (AG Chambers)and Haji Adzhar Sulaiman (IRB).
There will also be several parallel sessions to discuss issues on cybercrime, Money Laundering, Financial Reporting Fraud and Tax Evasions. Everyone is welcome. For details kindly browse our website ar http://ari.uitm.edu.my. Special discounts are availble to those who register in groups. ICFC 2011 is also CPD claimable for most professional bodies. Thank you to TV3 and in particular to Ms Wardina Safiyah for being a great host...

Corporate Social Responsibility Article

ARI congratulates its research fellow, Associate Professor Dr Roshayani Arshad over the recent publication of her article titled "Corporate Social Responsibility: Business Strategy Towards Value Creation". The article was featured in a newly launched professional magezine of the Malaysian Accountancy Research and Education Foundation (MAREF)- MAREF Review. The article concluded that significant relationships between CSR disclosure and stock returns indicate that companies are shifting their focus beyond market transaction gains. Companies are now recognising the strategic importance of CSR practices in their effort to satisfy the various needs of stakeholders. In addition it was also proposed that the regulatory effort in Malaysia has the propensity to be an effective mechanism in influencing managers to engage in CSR activities and to disclose more comprehensice CSR information. Congratulations Dr Roshayani and her team members...

UiTM - Another Year of Readers Digest's Trusted Brand

Congratulations Universiti Teknologi MARA for once again being recognized as Readers Digest's "Most Trusted Brand" under the public university category. In its June 2011 issue, the Readers Digest reveals some of the top names that have won the customers heart. “The true benchmark of success for a brand is the extent to which it wins and holds the trust of consumers, regardless of economic conditions,” says Gwen Loong, Group Advertising Director for Reader’s Digest Asia. “Winning a Reader’s Digest Trusted Brands Award is the ultimate seal of consumer approval. These winning brands are the first choices of consumers – they have proven their trustworthiness and their commitment to quality, value, innovation, social responsibility and to answering consumers’ everyday needs.” Well done UiTM. Universiti Teknologi MARA has received a record of more than 275,000 applications for the 2011 intake.

Corporate Integrity System Malaysia (CISM)

ARI congratulates the Malaysian Institute of Integrity (IIM) for the recent launching of its Corporation Integrity Pledge and Anti-Corruption Principles 2011. The launching ceremony was graced by the Yang Berhormat Senator Dato' Sri Idris Jala, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department and Chief Executive Officer of PEMANDU at Bursa Malaysia on 31 March 2011. The Corporation Integrity Pledge and Anti-Corruption Principles 2011 are more than a statement of mere intent. By voluntarily signing the pledge to endorse the Principles, companies are committing to a long-term programme to create an effective system that upholds integrity in the Malaysian corporate sector through transparency, accountability and good governance. They will be part of a greater initiative to create a business environment in Malaysia which supports anti-corruption measures. To date, seventeen corporations have signed up the pledge and it is certainly a great move forward. ARI congratulates the seventeen corporations who are namely: My Led Group, Malaysia Airport Berhad, Siemens, Air Asia, Asia Media, Tricubes, Mydin, Tesco, Emery, Minconsult Sdn Bhd, Karambuni Corp Bhd, Dialog, Infineon, Alcatel-Lucent, Top Glove, TM Berhad and Media Monitors. Hopefully more corporations will come forward to show their committment and support for the initiatives.
In addition to the corporate pledges, the Malaysian Institute of Integrity has also published a book titled "The Enhancement of Integrity and Anti-Corruption Measures", which was co-edited by Abu Kassim Mohamed, Chuah Chang Man and Mohd Nizam Mohd Ali. Congratulations IIM...

Dr Nizal's New Book

ARI congratulates our research fellow, Associate Professor Dr Mohd Nizal Haniff over the publication of his new book titled "Wanita dan Dunia Kewangan Peribadi" - Personal Finance for Women. As the backbone of any family, women play an extremely important role in keeping their family financing in order. Personal Finance for Women provides simple step-by-step techniques that women can use to strategize their family financing. Strategies include prudent expenses, lean budgeting and deliberate small-scale investment or saving. One lesson being stressed by this book is the fact that saving or investment must be provided for in any family budget and it should never be done only if there's "left over" in the budget at the end of the month (as there will never be any left over). Put aside some amount as saving, then use the remaining fund for expenses or to pay up liabilities. Well done Dr Nizal....

Accountancy Five-Year Strategic Planning

The Vice Chancellor, Dato' Professor Ir Dr Sahol Hamid provided a morale booster to all members of the Faculty of Accountancy when he took time off his busy schedule to attend the faculty's strategic planning event over the weekend. Dato' Sahol spent a good two hours with the faculty members, sharing his vision on how to put UiTM on the world map. As a premier faculty, the Faculty of Accountancy has a lot of potential to be a global player. Through its professional programs, ACCA, for example is awarding a Platinum Status to UiTM. Such Stature is only awarded to deserving tuition providers who have achieved a commendable percentage of passing rate globally. With its global partners, the faculty hopes to champion new research areas such as green accounting, carbon accounting, charity financial reporting framework, reputational accounting index, integrity accounting framework and many others.

2011-2015 Accountancy Strategic Planning

As a strategic partner to the Faculty of Accountancy, ARI participated in the faculty's recent strategic planning retreat held at the Pan Pacific Hotel, KLIA. Specifically, ARI has been assigned to participate in the specific "island" that was to discuss on what is expected of a research faculty. In a recent university's academic conference held in February, eight faculties (Faculty of Accountancy is one of them) have been named as research faculties. As such, research faculties and centres of excellence will be the main players to spearhead the university's research agenda at the Shah Alam campus. Premised on the requirements of the MyRA form the team specifically outlined strategies that a research faculty should focus on: (i) Number of Principal Investigators, (ii) Number of PhD/Professional-qualified staff, (iii) Number of PhD students & Graduates, (iv) Number of research projects, (v) Amount of External Research Grants, (vi) Number of indexed publications or citation or value of journal impact factors, (vii) Innovation/IPR/gifts and (viii) Resources and Support Facilities.

Driving VCSP: Top Notch Strategic Alliances

The Vice Chancellor Special Project (VCSP) team entrusted with forging Strategic Alliances with Top Notch Research Centres met up today to discuss 2011 research collaboration projects. At least four research projects will be pursued for 2011: (i) The Institute of Business Excellence IBE will have three projects will the Halal research Institute of the Chullalongkorn University, Thailand; (ii) The Institute of Science IOS will proceed to collaborate with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANSTO), (iii) Research Institute in Natural Products RIND will partner with the ICCBS, University of Karachi, iv) Non-Destructive Biomedical & Pharmaceutical Research Centre NDBPRC will formalize research collaboration with Perugia University, Italy. Each strategic alliance project will be given a stipend of RM25,000 and the team is expected to formalize the collaboration and to produce at least one "early-win" deliverable within the next six month. Two strategic alliance VCSP projects were successfully embarked in 2010 by the Accounting Research Institute ARI. The first collaborative research project on Target Costing Implementation is with the Management Accounting Centre of the National Taiwan University. The second project on The Governance of Non-Profit Organizations is with the International Center for Political Violence & Terrorism Research, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. 2011 will hopefully be another great year for the CoEs....

Appreciation to Malaysian NPOs

ARI thanks all the Malaysian Non Profit Organizations (NPOs)who attended the workshop on "Governance and Financial Management of Malaysian NPOs" at the International Auditorium, Companies Commission Malaysia (CCM). The half-day engagement event was jointly organized by the Accounting Research Institute (ARI) and CCM. The event was basically divided into three components. The first component comprised briefing by two speakers: Mr Sufyan from CCM spoke on the governance of NPOs in Malaysia and Ms Suhana from the Financial Intelligence Unit FIU discussed the Anti-Money Laundering & Countering Financing Terrorism Framework and how the framework affect the Malaysian NPOs. The second component was the discussion session where participants was asked to elaborate on responsibilities, issues, problems, support system and the governance of NPOs in this country. The third component was the focus group interviews where ARI researchers conducted interviews to find out more about actual practices and the financial governance of NPOs. All in all, the discussions highlighted some very interesting findings. First on the need to set up a commission on Charity and Non-Profit Organisations. Second is on the need to award "tax exempt status" to qualified NPOs. Third was on the need to develop special financial reporting framework which is based on activities. Something to ponder.....

Governance and Financial Management of NPOs

The Accounting Research Institute, in collaboration with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) will be organizing a one-day seminar cum workshop with various non-profit organizations (NPOs) in Malaysia. The event will be held on the 19th of May 2011 (Thursday)at the CCM auditorium. NPOs are therefore invited to attend the workshop. The focus of the workshop is twofolds. First, is to gather relevant input from the participants so as to enable the two organizers to develop suitable governance mechanism for the NPOs. Second, premised on best practice dimension globally, to develop suitable financial reporting framework for these non-profit organizations. Currently, ARI and CCM are undertaking a collaborative research that hopes to develop a more formalized governance and financial reporting framework for NPOs. The collaborative research is undertaken in response to the APG mutual evaluation that found Malaysia to be partially compliant with SR VIII on non-profit organizations as there exists “no ongoing strategy to identify and mitigate Anti Money Laundering & Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) risks within NPO sector” (p. 218).

Exploratory Research Grant Scheme ERGS

The exploratory research grant scheme or better known as ERGS is a newly introduced grant scheme by the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE). It is especially created to cater for research projects that fulfill the following criteria:
1. New idea(s) that has never been explored
2. New research idea with transformational capability
3. New application to an established research
4. Research that provides viable solution to acute issues or problems
5. New ideas that produces Innovative Spin-Offs
Priority is given to research projects that contribute directly to Malaysia's strategic agenda or those human/social-based projects that enhance the quality of life for this country....

International Conference on Financial Criminology - ICFC 2011

The 4th International Conference on Financial Criminology (ICFC 2011), which is jointly organized by the Accounting Research Institute, the Faculty of Accountancy, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) will be held on 8 - 9 June 2011. Themed "Islamic Accountability and Fraud Risk Management", it will be held at the Pullman Hotel, Putrajaya, Malaysia. Conference papers will include Islamic perspectives in the following areas:
1. Forensic Accounting
2. Financial Criminology
3. Fraudulent Financial Reporting
4. Occupational Fraud
5. Risks in Financial Crime
6. Corporate Risks and Corporate Governance
7. Fraud Investigations and Legal Aspects
8. Computer Forensic and Cyber Crime
9. Audit and Investigation
10. Organised Trans-National Crime
11. Public Sector and Corruption
12. Tax Fraud and Tax Issues
13. Money Laundering Issues
14. Other interdisciplinary areas
All are invited to participate. There will be a good mix or practitioners and researchers to deliberate on issues and to propose on viable solutions. For details, kindly browse the following url:http://ari.uitm.edu.my/conferences/450-icfc-2010.html

MACC Report 2010

ARI reads the MACC Report 2010 with much interest. Listed below is an Excerpt of a BERNAMA news published on 28th April 2011.

KUALA LUMPUR: It is estimated that the country lost RM754 million in revenue due to rampant sand theft and illegal logging throughout last year. According to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Annual Report 2010, the government lost an estimated RM745 million in royalty due to sand theft and RM8.95 million from illegal logging.

With an estimated 3,000 lorries used to transport illegally-mined sand over the one-year period, the losses could amount to RM600 million, and another RM145 million lost to smuggling of sand to a neighbouring country, according to the report. It said that throughout 2010, MACC received 410 tip-offs on corruption and power abuse related to illegal sand mining.
Forty-five investigation papers were opened, resulting in 43 arrests made, with 22 of the individuals involved charged in court for corruption offences and other wrong-doings related to sand mining. The report said the bribes amounted to RM321,528, with RM88,000 being the highest amount received by an offender uncovered during last year's 'Ops Pasir' (Operation Sand). Six people were also arrested for bribery involving sex.

The MACC revealed in the report that besides offering bribes to enforcement officers, the culprits also issued threats. "The illegal sand mining locations were fenced up and guarded by tontos, with some of the armed with guns. "They not only interfered with enforcement work but also dared to threaten and point their pistols at the enforcement officers," the report said.

With regard to illegal logging, it said the losses were based on the estimated value of the illegally-felled logs seized during 'Ops Balak' (Operation Timber) last year. Throughout last year, 10 investigation papers were opened from 46 tip-offs received on corrupt practices related to illegal logging. Some of the operations against illegal logging were carried out in Johor, Perak and Pahang including along the Simpang Pulai-Cameron Highlands Road, and in Kedah and Hulu Selangor.

In an enforcement operation at the Bintang Hijau Forest Reserve in Lenggong, Perak, the MACC found 800 logs worth RM250,00O and which were from illegally-felled trees. In another operation at the Tersang Forest Reserve in Raub, Pahang, it was discovered that the stolen logs were sold to buyers at RM2,500 each.

In an operation in Kedah, the MACC arrested the South Kedah District Forestry director, an officer and two forest rangers for asking for bribes from a timber businessman. The report said illegal logging not only caused heavy revenue loss but could also destroy the habitats and their eco-systems, besides threatening the lot of the Orang Asli who depended on jungle produce for a living.