Accounting Course for Assessors

As part of our ongoing collaboration with the Malaysian Productivity Corporation (MPC), the Accounting Research Institute (ARI) conducted a one-day accounting program for assessors. Basically, the  two groups of assessors who attended the program comprised of: (i) MPC assessors who assess the Quality Management Excellence Award (QMEA) and (ii) PROTON assessors who assess Vendor Quality Award.  Basic Accounting Course for assessors is divided into three important parts.  The first part examines key ratios which include (i) Return on Equity, (ii)  Liquidity, (iii) Profitability, (iv) Asset Management and (v) Leverage.  The second part covers comparative analysis of the company's performance via Horizontal and Vertical Analyses.  Ration analysis on it own is meaningless unless it is benchmarked with the best in the industry or compared with previous years' performance.  The third part of the course reviews management accounting techniques that should be adopted by companies to assist management to either control costs or to make the most strategic decision.  In the afternoon, participants had to choose a company for them to evaluate.  Based on what they have learned, they need to assess the financial performance of the company.

IPSC 2012

Day 2

The second day of  IPSC 2012 was filled with more interesting deliberations.  A guest speaker from MACC presented a paper titled "Fraud in Public Sector: A Never Ending Story".  The speaker uses the Fraud Triangle Theory to explain behaviours of fraudster.  He further deliberated on a recent public sector fraud survey.  Following the interesting talk, were the presentations of more than seventy public sector research papers through ten parallel sessions.  Generally, the conference participants had such a difficult time to choose the "best slot" to attend. 

The afternoon sessions were filled with two very interesting slots: (i) A Forum " Embracing Accrual Accounting: Blending the Private and Public Sector Initiatives" and (ii) A special keynote speech by the Auditor General Tan Sri Dato' Setia Haji Ambrin bin Buang on a topic titled "Food for Thought: Issues in Public Sector Auditing".  Tan Sri shared several audit incidents and deliberated on how government auditors are expected to undergo continuous training programs so that they are always ahead in terms of professional and technical competencies.  Since government auditors are not given the statutory power to act against fraudsters from among unscrupulous public officers, other regulatory and enforcement agencies must play their role more effectively to quickly investigate and to charge wrong doers.

IPSC 2012 ended with the announcement of five best papers.  Congratulation all winners.  The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) wish to thank (i) all members of the organizing committee, (ii) local and international participants and (iii) donors,  for a successful conference.

International Public Sector Conference 2012

Day 1

 

The two-day International Public Sector Conference 2012 (IPSC 2012), which is jointly organized by the Public Sector Research Centre and the Financial Reporting Research Centre of the Accounting Research Institute; Faculty of Accountancy and Universiti Teknologi MARA, Sabah campus was officially launched this morning with some very interesting Plenary sessions.  Themed "Reshaping and Energizing the Public Sector", the conference is attended by more than 200 participants from among public sector organisations and  academia from Malaysia, Indonesia, Eqypt, India and South Africa.  Essentially, the objectives of the conference are to provide a platform for participants to present their research findings; to discuss and share their thoughts on issues related to public sector accounting & financial reporting and to share knowledge & information between academics and practitioners. The first keynote  paper titled "Public Sector Reform: The South Africa Experience" was presented in the morning by a researcher from the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, South Africa.  Following the keynote address,  was a forum on "Women in Leadership in Public  Sector", which was deliberated by Dato' Sutinah of MACC, Dr Ruzita of UiTM Sabah and Ms Nomantu Nkomo-Rolehoko from South Africa.,  The afternoon sessions continued with two guest papers on "Green Accounting: Towards Energy Management" and "Fraud in Public Sector - Zero Tolerance" and a Forum titled "Towards New Landscape for Public Sector Reporting: The Role of the Professional Bodies". Conference participants were invited to a charity dinner which was officiated by the Sabah Chief Minister, YAB Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Haji Aman.  The Chief Minister later on  launched the publication of eight research monographs by researchers from the Public Sector Accounting Research Centre and presented donations for three entities - Child Sabah Daycare Centre; TOLUMIS - Home for Disables and MDAB UiTM Fund.

IFCTF 2012

Day Two

The second day continued with two plenary sessions in the morning.  Plenary Session 3 focused on "Challenges in Implementing the Financial Action Task Force Recommendation related to Risk-Based" - with spekers from AUSTRAC, Citibank Hong Kong and ORACLE Practice Solution consultant from India.  One of the biggest challenges that regulators and financial institutions often have to face is the "subjectivity nature of the assessment" itself.  Whilst one institution may consider a client to be  of "low risk", another institution may classify the same client as "high risk".  As such, it is necessary that financial institutions and other reporting institutions must provide detailed documentation to reflect how and why such "risk-based classification" was reached. 

 

Plenary session 4 showcased "Anti-Money Laundering Success Stories".  Panelists comprise the Director, Federal Special Task Force - Operations and Counter Terrorism of the Royal Malaysia Police; Deputy Director of Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) and the FIU of Hong Kong.  In Hong Kong, the FIU is part of the Police Department.

In the afternoon, three parallel sessions were held to discuss three important topics of (i) Terrorism Financing - Red Flags for Identification; (ii) International Financial Centres - What Can go Wrong, and (iii) Insurance Industry and Risk against AML-CFT.

The Final plenary session 5 on "Cyber Crime Trends, Impact and Safeguards to Business" saw discussions among practice solution developers.  The closing remarks were deliberated by the CEO of AIF, Dr Raymond Madden.

IFCTF 2012

Day One

The opening ceremony of the International Conference on Financial Crime and Terrorism Financing 2012 (IFCTF 2012) was officially graced this morning by the Deputy Inspector of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar.  In his speech, Tan Sri Khalid emphasized on the need for enforcement agencies such as the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) to continuously update itself with new technology and the police must also  keep pace with latest financial crime tactics.

Various plenary sessions that were held after the opening ceremony further showcased several international experts from the Asia Pacific Group on Anti Money Laundering  (APG), AUSTRAC, Financial Action Task Force (FATF), World Bank, UK Her Royal Majesty Custom and other regional Financial Intelligence units (FIUs).  The focus of the conference this year has gone beyond compliance.  Most discussions have centred around "risk-based assessment" and "effectiveness of compliance".  In view of the forthcoming mutual evaluation in 2013, many speakers have elaborated on FATF's "40 New Recommendations" and "Assessment Framework".

In the afternoon, there were six concurrent sessions where speakers were grouped into different sub-topics such as Insurance Fraud; AML/CFT Competency & Training; Cash Movement; Capital Market Typologies; Current Trends in Cyber Crime and Capital Market Fraud & Investigation.

The two-day conference saw a record number of 600 participants.  The Accounting Research Institute is indeed very honoured to be invited to co-organize the prestigous event. IFCTF 2012 is organized by the Compliance Officer Networking Group (CONG), AIF and supported by Bank Negara Malaysia.

Meeting the Chief Secretary of Malaysia

Malaysia's new Chief Secretary Datuk Seri Dr Ali Hamsa, made an official visit to Universiti Teknologi MARA.  During the visit, he met up with academic and adminstrative staff of the university.  As part of his "open door" policy, Datuk Seri Ali welcomes feedback and suggestions from civil servants and other government stakeholders on ways to expedite the government transformation ptogram (GTP).  One of his priority agendas is to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of the public sector.  One of the good news he brought to the university was the setting up of a teaching hospital for UiTM in its Puncak Alam campus.

Visit to Al-Rajhi Corporate Office

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) thanks the Compliance Division of the Al-Rajhi bank for accepting our visit to the corporate office this morning.  Two ARI researchers, Professor Dr Normah Omar and Associate Professor Dr Pok Wee Ching met with senior officers of the Compliance Division to discuss on AML-CFT awareness programs at financial institutions.  In tandem with our current research focus on the Governance of Non-Profit Organizations, a special session will be arranged by the bank for an awareness talk for its staff on "NPO - Know Your Client" by ARI researcher.  The NPO sector is fairly huge and the APG/FATF has issued guidelines requiring NPO to furnish "Material Information" in its reporting.  Such material information includes :

1.  Disclosure on different types of revenues (e.g. membership fees, grants, donation etc)

2.  Disclosure on activities of NPO for generating funds (e.g. receipts from dinner and sales of books)

3.  Disclosure on investment income (if any)

4.  Disclosure on expenditure and its distribution

5.  List of personnel (members & directors)

 

Meeting with PHN Sdn Berhad

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) thanks Mr Azhar, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of PHN Sdn Berhad for hosting a meeting to discuss a research project titled "Target Costing Implementation Decisions and Organizational Capabilities" by one of our PhD students.   PHN is one of the leading automotive component manufacturers in this country.  PHN Clients include among others, renowned automotive companies such as PROTON, PERODUA, HONDA and NISSAN. In principle, PHN agrees to participate in the study, which will involve questionnaire survey, focus group interviews, site visit and a case study.... 

Thank You Professor Milind Sathye

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) is certainly honoured to have received Professor Milind Sathye from the University of Canberra, Australia as our guest and visiting professor. Prof Sathye conducted research & publication workshops with both post graduate students and staff; attended ARI research progress evaluation retreat; held meetings with the Anti Money Laundering & Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML-CFT) research cluster; meeting and research briefing with the Compliance Officer Networking Group (CONG) at the Institute of Banks, Malaysia; organized a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) evening talk for the CPA Australia members in Kuala Lumpur; on-on-one research and publicationselling with individual researchers and meeting with the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM).  ARI hopes to produce a lot of joint publications with Professor Sathye, especially in the area of AML-CFT.  Prof Sathye's expertise and research interest is in anti money laundering.  In 2008, he published a landmark paper on the computation of compliance cost of AML-CFT.  Currently Prof Sathye is involved in ARI HICoE research project in the Computation of AML-CFT Compliance Cost for Malaysia.

Prof Sathye's Meeting with DVC UiTM

It is often customary that the host of any visiting professor of the university is to bring our guest to meet the deputy vice chancellor.  In the case of Universiti Teknologi MARA, the deputy vice chancellor (DVC) who is entrusted to review the appointments of visiting professors, visiting scientists, academic advisors and adjunct professors is the "Academic and Internationalization" DVC.  Today, the Accounting Research Institute (ARI)'s liason officer and researcher, Associate Professor Dr Pok Wee Ching brought Professor Milind Sathye to meet DVC Prof Dr Azni Zain Ahmed for an informal chat.  Since Prof Sathye's expertise in the Anti Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML-CFT) is in line with ARI's aspiration of becoming a reference centre in Financial Criminology research, he will be showcased in UiTM's forthcoming Academic Coffee Table Book which will be published by the the DVC (academic & internationalization) office in May 2013.  Prof Azni and Prof Sathye discussed on the importance of universities to embark on international collaborations - in academic programs and in research.  Both also saw the potential of ARI as a regional centre of excellence in its niche research area of Islamic Financial Criminology.

Compliance Costs of AML-CFT Regime

In implementing anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism (AML-CFT) regime, costs are often incurred to ensure compliance among reporting institutions.  Professor Milind Sathye from the University of Canberra, Australia who is here in Malaysia as a visiting professor at the Accounting Research Institute (ARI) has been invited by CPA Australia office in Kuala Lumpur to give a talk entitled "Cost of AML-CFT Compliance".  As a registered AML-CFT auditor, Prof Sathye has conducted numerous research in this area and has indeed published a landmark paper on calculating the compliance costs of AML-CFT.  Since the talk was part of CPA Australia's continuous professional development  (CPD) program, forty CPA members have registered and attended the evening talk.  In tandem with what was suggested by Reuter and Trumen in their 2004 paper, Prof Sathye iterated that the compliance cost of the AML-CFT regime can be classified under three main categories.  They are namely (i) Costs incurred by the goverment or the public sector in esytablishing and administering the regime; (ii) Costs incurred by the private sector in carrying out the requirements of government and (iii) costs borne by the general public.  Four acceptable methodologies used to estimate the compliance costs are (i) case study, (ii) econometric, (iii) surveys and (iv) analogy.  Currently, the Accounting Research Institute is utilizing an online survey methodology to obtain estimates of the AML-CFT compliance costs.

Potential Collaboration with Universitas Riau, Indonesia

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) welcomes our Indonesian researchers and guests from Universitas Riau who made a one-day visit to ARI.  As a Higher Institutions' Centre of Excellence (HICoE), ARI encourages its researchers to forge international collaborations.  During the discussion meeting with ARI researchers, several collaborative research that have been identified, could be undertaken by both entities.  They include (i) forensic accounting in public sector services; (ii) cross-border taxation; (iii) public sector audit.  The collaborative projects will further source other international expertise to be part of the research team.  Future meetings will be arranged in Riau campus to discuss the development of research proposals and the identification of international funders for the projects.  Initially, at least two projects related to Islamic Financial Criminology (IFC) will be embarked based on a fund matching concept, where each entity will support its own research but the data from both countries will be integrated to allow for international comparisons.  Another country will be identified where the data can be used for benchmarking purposes.

ARI-CONG Collaboration on AML-CFT

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) thanks the chairman of the Compliance Officer Networking Group (CONG), Mr Mad Yusuf and other CONG members for agreeing to meet up with ARI researchers.  The meeting which was held at the Institute of Bankers in Kuala Lumpur was also attended by ARI visiting professor Dr Milind Sathye.  Prof Sathye who is currently attached with the University of Canberra, Australia is an expert in Anti Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML-CFT).  The meeting aims to discuss a research instrument that has been developed by ARI to determine the perception of compliance officers on the cost of compliance of AML-CFT regime.  A total of 26 compliance officers from various financial institutions attended the ARI-CONG meeting.  As a Higher Institutions' Centre of Excellence (HICoE), ARI research niche is in the area of Islamic Financial Criminology (IFC).  IFC in turn is divided into two main domains, namely Islamic Finance and Financial Criminology.  Within the Islamic Finance domain, ARI works collaboratively with various agencies at national and international levels to develop new Islamic Finance products for the industry.  Similarly, the financial criminology domain focuses on three aspects of financial crime: AML-CFT, Non-Profit Organizations and Fraud risk indicators.

Outreach Programs with NPOs

In a recent meeting and discussion with senior officers of the Registrar of Societies (ROS), the Accounting Research Institute (ARI)  has proposed a collaborative ARI-ROS outreach program with non-profit organizations (NPOs).  The outreach program aims to obtain feedback from members on issues related to NPO governance; financial integrity; activity reporting and accountability.  More importantly, ROS wants to know how best it can facilitate non profit organizations so that they (the NPOs) can showcase maximum accountability to the public.  A one day outreach program and seminar has been planned for 14th January 2013 to commemorate the "societies day".  Selected NPOs will be invited to showcase their activities and accountability measures.  As a Higher Institutions' Centre of Excellence (HICoE), ARI's current research interest include examining comments and recommendations of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Asia Pacific Group (APG) Mutual Evaluation Report  of member countries on NPOs.  Both FATF and APG are recognized international agencies established specifically to monitor activities related to money laundering and terrorism financing.

Prof Humayun Talk on Islamic Microfinance

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) thanks Professor Humayun Dar for dropping by at ARI and delivered a speech on "Islamic Microfinance" to our Islamic Finance research cluster members.  Professor Dar is an expert in Islamic microfinance and has initiatiated several microfinance-based enterpreneurship programs in developing countries.  In his talk,Prof Dar shared his involvement in microfinance.  One of the projects in Pakistan has successfully produced businesses dealing with staple foods - potato and corns.  Supported by  IDB, enterpreneurs initiatited their businesses on "special made" motor cycles and they move around towns to sell their products.  For ARI, one of its Phase 2 projects is on Islamic Micro Financing, which introduces the element of a supply chain within a total value creation framework.  Certainly, Prof Dar's suggestion would give an additional dimension to ARI's research niche in Islamic Financial Criminology. (Note: Prof Humayun Dar is the gentleman wearing grey suit and red tie).

ARI Research Retreat 2012

Day 3

On the last day of the retreat, two more activities took place.  In the morning, the Accounting Research Institute (ARI) conducted its normal meeting with the researchers where research issues were discussed and viable solutions were proposed.  More importantly, ARI HICoE's top management shared their vision and aspirations and encouraged members to work cohesively to achieve the ministry's expectation for us to go international.  Strategies should therefore be in place to involve as many international collaborators as possible in each of ARI HICoE research projects.  Researchers, especially those from various state campuses have indicated their interest to establish ARI Chapter in their campuses. After the meeting, Professor Dr Milind Sathye from the University of Canberra, Australia addressed the audience on the way forward towards internationalisation.  ARI HICoE niche area of Islamic Financial Criminology is indeed "cutting edge" and researchers must ensure that their research data is of high quality so that publications in high impact factor journals are very likely and viable.  Thank you all.....

ARI Retreat 2012 - Progress Reporting

Day 2

On the second day of the retreat, the program started with a publication workshop titled "Publish or Perish"  by visiting professor Dr Milind Sathye from University of Canberra, Australia.  The workshop basically discusses different types of publication that researchers can explore: book chapters, research books and indexed journals.  Three main sources of indexed journals are namely ISI Thomson, SCOPUS and ERA.  The main focus of journal publications is the "newness" aspect of the articles.  Researchers must therefore highlight this newness in the abstract itself.  Very often, papers get rejected as reviewers are not able to establish the paper's new contributions at the very early stage of reading the paper.  Immediately after the workshops, researchers were divided into four different panels to update their research progress.  Basically, there were two groups of research projects: ARI HICoE Phase 1 projects which should have ended in July 2012 and Phase 2 which just begun in January 2012.  Every completed project is expected to produce at least five research spinoffs, including two compulsory indexed journal papers.  For phase 2 projects, researchers were expected to have completed their data collection stage and have started producing some concept papers as journal publications.  Several researchers from Indonesia who are members of some research projects have also shown their commitment by attending the three-day research retreat.  As a whole, researchers have shown good progress and mostly have achieved their targeted milestones.  Congratulations...

Novel, Riddle and Forensic Accounting

Day 1: 

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) thanks Professor Larry Crumbley for spending an evening talking to a group of researchers of the institute.  Crumbley, the "father" of forensic accounting does not only write forensic accounting books, interestingly enough, he has written more than ten novels on the topic.  His informal lecture this evening covered three interesting topics: forensic accounting, Crumbly's novels and the "three-dots riddle".  According to Crumbley, the "Forensic accountants are the private eyes of the business world,".  Whilst a normal accountant acts like a watchdog, Crumbley believes that a forensic accountant is trained to act like a bloodhound."   To succeed in the field, forensic accountants must learn to look beyond the obvious and think like a detective.  Crumbley further articulated that,  he often uses riddles to get his students thinking. The use of novels and riddles very often gets people to use their minds and imaginations. Some of the famous titles of his novels, include "The Ultimate Rip-off", "Trap Doors" and "Trojan Horses".  Thank you for starting our Retreat "on a high note and on the right footing"...

Corporate Integrity System Malaysia - CISM

As part of the Government Transformation Programme (GTP), PEMANDU or the Performance Management and Delivery unit of the Prime Minister's Department has been entrusted to drive one of the NKRAs related to "Fighting Corruption" together with two other agencies namely the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the Malaysian Institute of Integrity (IIM).  On the premise that corruption is the direct result of "lack of integrity" of individuals and/or organizations, several instruments have been developed to measuare and assess integrity in organizations.  The Accounting Research Institute (ARI), together with several academics of local universities are working closely with IIM to develop a "Corporate Integrity System for Malaysia - CISM".  To date, the instrument has been used to assess the integrity system of several companies in Malaysia.  Meanwhile, companies that have signed up the "Integrity Pledge" can also showcase their own integrity structure and initiatives.    Today, a meeting was held at IIM to discuss "moving forward" strategies as to how best  integrity best practices can be made available to the public at large.

Meeting a Forensic Accounting GURU

It has been such an honour to meet up with Professor Dr Larry Crumbley of Louisiana State University (LSU), USA who is here for a short working visit in Kuala Lumpur.  Prof Crumbley is one of the pioneers and an icon within the forensic accounting fratenity. Contributor of nine articles to the Accounting Review, at least seven articles in the Journal of Accountancy, six articles in the Journal of Taxation, three in The Tax Adviser, eleven in the CPA Journal, two in The Journal of ATA, fifteen in Petroleum Accounting and Financial Mgt. J., seven in Tax Notes, and one in Tax Law Review, National Tax Journal, Advances in Taxation, Advances in Accounting Education, Journal of Accounting, Organization, and Society, and Journal of Risk and Insurance.  Besides, he co-authors at least 400 major articles and many newspaper columns. He also authored or co-authored  at least 55 books and many chapters/contributions to other publications.  The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) is extremely fortunate as Prof Crumbley has agreed to give an evening talk on "Forensic Accounting" during ARI Retreat on 7th September 2012.

OIC R&D Expert Group Meeting

Day 3

The third day of the meeting discusses R&D resolutions and put forward strategic action plan for the proposed collaboration among participating countries.  Some of the recommendations put forward in the resolutions include: firstly the establishment of Research and Innovation Collaborative Effort (OIC-RICE).  It is hoped that OIC-RICE will support and complement the activities of existing OIC agencies.  Essentially this initiative focuses on providing solutions to challenges faced by OIC countries as well as focusing on capacity building.  OIC-RICE ecosystem integrates "research collaboration", "knowledge transfer", "positioning" and "research market".  Among the "Ummah -Driven Solutions" proposed  include the formation of RACE, COE, establishment of OIC-RICE journals, High Impact Publication and the Creation of OIC Laureate Prize.  Secondly, whilst research collaborations between "like-minded" researchers of different OIC countries can commence immediately, there must be a formal understanding among participating countries (at the ministrial level) on the sources of funding.  An OIC Ministrial level meeting will be held in Sudan in November 2012.

OIC Research Expert Group Meeting

Day 2

The second day started with a brainstorming session among participants.  Discussions include priority research areas that OIC participating countries can embark on for now and for the forthcoming years; the establishment of the OIC Research Cooperation Agency and the identification of suitable funding bodies.  The meeting identified priority researchable topics which include nanotechnology; Human safety and poverty eradication.  Among the funding framework suggested for the OIC R&D initiatives include "Seed Grant for Initial Research Grant for the Agency", "Matching Grant by respective OIC countries", "Qatar Foundation", "Kuwait Fund for Development Agency", and "Supreme Council of Science".   Participating countries have  also identified specific research area that they wish to lead: Iran - Nano & Bio Technology; Qatar - Marine; Turkey - Defence;  Brunei - Oil & gas and Malaysia - Food security, tropical disease, renewable energy, Islamic finance. The meeting also suggested for the establishment of the OIC Laurette Prize and to identify possible international funders for this initiative.

In the afternoon, participants visited two research centres: Halal Products Research Institute (HPRI) of Universiti Putra Malaysia and the Green Technology Innovation Park of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Expert Group Meeting on R&I of OIC Countries

Day 1:

A three-day expert Group Meeting on Research and Development (R&D) in the Organization of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) Countries has been organized by the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia (MOHE).  The event which is held on 3-5 September 2012 in Kuala Lumpur is attended by some twelve countries witha total of  sixty participants.  Themed "Creation of Research and Innovation Ecosystem in the Muslim Countries Towards Global Prominence", the meeting aims to (i) showcase R&D initiatives of participating countries; (ii) propose possible research collaborations in niche area of OIC countries and related funding mechanisms and (iii) create a viable R&D ecosystem together with complete governance mechanisms of the initiatives.  On the first day of the meeting, country representatives from Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Malaysia presented R&D initiatives of their respective countries.  One of Malaysia's R&D initiaves include the establishment of the Higher Institutions' Centre of Excellence (HICoE).  As a HICoE, the Accounting Research Institute (ARI) has been showcased as a case study.  Professor Dr Normah Omar. ARI director highlighted some of ARI's R&D initiatives in the niche area of Islamic Financial Criminology.

ARI Welcome Prof Milind Sathye

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) welcomes Prof Dr Milind Sathye from the University of Canberra, Australia who is visiting Universiti Teknologi MARA from 1st September to 15th September 2012.  Prof Sathye has been recently appointed as a visiting professor at ARI.  Currently, Prof Sathye is the Head of Accounting, Banking and Finance at University of Canberra.  Prof Sathye worked for nearly two decades in the Reserve Bank of India (National Bank) including as Project Manager World Bank Pilot Project. Frequently, consulted by Australian and overseas media, Prof Sathye has appeared on ABC Inside Busienss, ABC 7.30 Report, Alan Jones Breakfast Program, Al Jazeera TV Dubai and 7 News among others. He has contributed opinion pieces in The Australian, Australian Financial Review, Sydney Morning Herald and The Age Melbourne. His expertise has been sought by the Australian Senate Economic Committees on many occasions and some of his recommendations on Australian banking have found a place in Committees final report. He has also worked as expert witness on banking and finance cases for Federal Court of Australia, Victorian Supreme Court and others. Professor Sathye's research focus is on efficiency and productivity, AMLCTF, e-banking and microfinance. He has published in top ranking journals such as the Journal of Banking and Finance, European Journal of operational Research and Journal of the Operational Research Society and currently holds two competitive external grants as a lead researcher.  Whilst her at ARI, Prof Sathye will be conducting research and publication workshops with ARI researchers.  ARI's particular research and publication focus collaborating with Professor Sathye is in the area of anti money laundering and couter financing of terrorism (AML-CFT).

Invitation by Rangsit University

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) thanks Rangsit University and Thailand Accounting Association for their recent invitation to ARI director to attend a two-day academic seminar in Bangkok.  Professor Dr Normah Omar was asked by the organizers to present a paper on the prospect of offering Forensic Accounting programs in Thailand.  A total of seventeen universities were represented by some 150 participants at the event.  Thailand Accounting Association (TAA) is an association of accounting academics in that country.  Every year, TAA organizes at least two training programs for its members. A  Forensic Accounting program is a specialized program.  Globally, the program is either offered as an undergraduate program ( e.g. Bachelor of Science in Forensic Accounting or Bachelor of Forensic Accounting); Post Graduate program (Master in Forensic Accounting or Master in Financial Criminology) or as a professional program (Association of Certified Fraud Examiner).  Some of the courses offered by these program include financial accounting, auditing, law, criminology, computer science, investigation and communication.