ARI Hari Raya Do 2015

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) and its members wish happy Eid Mubarak 2015 to all. Muslims in countries, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Singapore often use the expressions "Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri", "Selamat Idul Fitri" or "Salam Idul Fitri".
A renewed energy and a fresh commitment for a new semester, after a great 30-day of fasting.  Today, ARI members organized a "pot-luck" open-day Eid Mubarak celebration on the 12th Floor of Menara Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah and had invited friends, post graduate students and research assistants to the event.  

Eid Mubarak

Members of the Accounting Research Institute (ARI) of Universiti Teknologi MARA send their Eid Mubarak wishes to all friends and followers.  Have an enjoyable holidays  everyone.

Farewell Prof Dr Rashidah Abdul Rahman

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) thanks our beloved fellow, Professor Dr Rashidah Abdul Rahman who recently took optional retirement.  Prof Rashidah was involved directly with the establishment of ARI way back since 2002 when she formed the Corporate Governance Special Interest Group.  The SIG was later "upgraded" when a MOU was signed with the Chairman of the Malaysian Institute of Corporate Governance  
(MICG), Tan Sri Megat Najmuddin in early 2003.  Spearheaded from that event was the establishment of more research centres.  Today, there are eight research centres in ARI: (1) UiTM-MICG Corporate Governance Centre , (2) UiTM-CIMA Management Accounting Cente, (3) UiTM-ACCA Financial Reporting Centre, (4) UiTM-CPA Australia Public Sector Centre, (5) Forensic Accounting Centre, (6) Islamic Accounting & Muamalat Centre, (7) Sustainability Research Centre and (8) GLC Research Centre.  Prof Rashidah was ARI's Deputy Director until her recent retirement.  As a research at ARI HICoE, Prof Rashidah was the head of the Shariah Governance Research Cluster.  Through her leadership, a new business model of Islamic Microfinance was developed by ARI HICoE.  The business model was pilot-tested through a collaboration with the Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) as microfinance financiaer and Mydin Holding as supplier and marketer.  The Tanjung Karang tailoring business project is Prof Rashidah's landmark success in promoting Islamic Microfinance as a strategic tool to alleviate poverty among the Ummah.  Professor Rashidah has gone to many countries to promote the business model.  Today, two countries namely Philippines and Tunisia have indicated their interest to emulate the Tanjung Karang project to their respective countries.  Within the last 5 years as ARI fellow, Prof Rashidah has published more than 100 papers in indexed journals and presented key note papers in many international conferences. We will certainly miss you Prof Rashidah, God bless you always.

Accountability Against Financial Fraud

"Pay Up or be Axed"....That's the headline that appeared on the main page of The Star newspaper dated 26th November 2011. Basically, the headline was refering to the Malaysian government recent proposal in mitigating the issue of occupational or management fraud within the public sector. It was further stated that "Officers who cause the government to lose money due to their negligence will be made to repay a portion of the lost revenue and they may even be sacked. If there are cases of embezzlement, ministry and department heads have to take the responsibility to report the matter to the police so that an investigation can be carried out". The Public Service Department (PSD)introduced these measures to ensure that civil servants are held accountable for the losses highlighted by the Auditor General in the 2010 Report. PSD recently issued a set of comprehensive guidelines to all ministries and state authorities on procedures in managing financial fraud at workplaces...

Day 3: PECIPTA 2011

Unlike previous events where the competition results were usually known by the end of the second day, PECIPTA 2011 will only announce the results on the third day. The Director General of the Higher Education of the Ministry of Higher Education will make the announcement of the results before the event is officially closed at 5 pm today. Whilst the exhibitions continue with participoants receiving larger crowd of visitors, the judges and the Judging Committee of PECIPTA 2011 met and deliberated on the results of the competition. The Research Management Institute (RMI) of Universiti Teknologi MARA, as secretariat of PECIPTA 2011 had successfully developed a data management system that makes the judging marks and data easily captured and efficiently managed.
Prof Dr Normah Omar, the Director of Accounting Research Institute (ARI) is part of the judging committee of PECIPTA 2011. PECIPTA 2011 will end today and ARI congratulates Universiti Teknologi MARA for making the event a memorable one. Certainly, PECIPTA 2011 is a good benchmark to forthcoming PECIPTA and we wish the next organizer of PECIPTA 2013 will bring the event to much greater height....

Day 2: PECIPTA 2011

PECIPTA 2011 went on smoothly on the second day. There's a lot of visitors, including foreigners who are interested to know more about the event and the products.
There's a number of bussiness owners who are keen to collaborate with researchers and research institutes in developing innovative products or new instrumentation that could improve productivity or efficiency of organizations. Interestingly, the junior inventor category showcases a lot of products that have great potential for commercialization. The Accounting Research Institute receives a few visitors who are keen to work collaboratively with ARI to develop new training programs such as forensic accounting, wasiat management and wqaf administration. Unfortunately, whilst some participants and inventors are very enthusiastic to showcase their products, others are only interested with the judging aspect of the event and had "close shop" and left their booth empty on the second day itself. It is unfortunate that they might have to miss great opportunity when interested parties who came to their booth were not able to see their products at all (there's a number of such occasions...)

ARI Booth at PECIPTA 2011

The Accounting Research Institute welcomes all guests to visit our exhibition booth at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. The exhibition is part of the international exhibition PECIPTA 2011 to be held on 13-15 September 2011. PECIPTA 2011 was officially opened this morning by the honorary minister Dato' Seri Mohd Khaled Nordin, Minister of higher education Malaysia this morning. With a theme "Invigorating Innovation in the New Economic Model", a total of 463 products are exhibited and judged for the competition. What is interesting about this year's competition is the introduction of the "Juniour inventors" competition where young participants from various secondary schools in the country will be showcasing their invention. The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) is competing in one Islamic Innovation product titled "The Awqaf Islamic System Administration (Daiyan)" through our two researchers, Ms Dalila Daud and Prof Dr Rashidah Abdul Rahman.

PECIPTA 2011: Judges Meeting

In making sure that PECIPTA 2011 runs smoothly, it is very important that all products showcased for the competition are professionally judged.
PECIPTA 2011 has a large pool of judges comprisng experts from academia and the industry. For PECIPTA 2011, almost fifty percent of the judges are from the industry. The judges briefing session was chaired and presented by Prof Dr AzniZain Ahmed, Uitm's Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic and Internationaliztion). Prof Azni has a wide experience in handling and managing event such as PECIPTA as she was the assistant vice chancellor (Research & Innovation) for Universiti Teknologi MARA for many good years.
A total of 463 products will be judged in different categories: New invention, Newly marketed products, Junior invention, Young inventor (for schools) and a few other categories. The judging process will run over two days on 13-14 September. Whilst products are mostly judged on the 13th, judging for the best booth will be carried out on 14th September. Good luck everyone. May PECIPTA 2011 be a memorable event for all researchers....

Happy Eid Mubarak

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) wishes all our Muslim friends a very Happy Eid Mubarak 1432.

Congratulations Nazlinda

The Accounting Research institute congratulates Ms Nazlinda Abdullah from the Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) for the Best Student Paper Award in the recent Pacific Rim Objective Measurement Symposium (PROMS 2011) held in Singapore. The PROMS 2011 award was for her paper titled "Parallel Resistive Circuit: Instrument Construct" which was submitted for the symposium. Ms Nazlinda is currently pursuing her PhD program at UiTM and is at her final stage of her study. As a proponent of the Rasch Model, Ms Nazlinda has demonstrated an important and meaningful application of the Rasch Model for the detection and correction of students' misconceptions of basic concepts on the topic of "electricity" in physics, specifically on the sub-topic of "Parallel Resistors". Congratulations....(Note: Ms Nazlinda is the one on the left with grey scarf)

ARI Exhibition at PECIPTA 2011

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) will be taking up a booth to showcase our activities and research products at the forthcoming PECIPTA 2011 to be held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) on 13-15 September 2011. Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) will be hosting the event. ARI will be showcasing some of its research publications in the area of Islamic Financial Criminology. Some ARI members will also be taking part in the PECIPTA 2011 product exhibition and competition.

2011 IFCTF

In its effort to drive research programs in the area of financial criminology, the Accounting Research Institute (ARI) will be collaborating with the industry to organize an International Conference on Financial Crime and Terrorism Financing. 2011IFCTF will be held on 19-20 September in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Themed "Raising the Bar in Compliance and Enforcement", the organizers anticipate the number of participants to exceed five hundred. Several renowned speakers have indicated their agreement to participate. 2011 IFCTF showcases interesting current issues in the areas of financial crime and terrorism financing and highlights practical solutions...

JFRA Special Issue

The Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting (JFRA), which is indexed with the UK-based Emerald Publishing International will have a special issue publication in 2012 with the theme "Islamic Financial Criminology". Specifically, the guest editor invites both conceptual and/or empirical papers in the areas of Islamic Accounting & Finance and Financial Criminology. Papers could incorporate contemporary issues such as counter human trafficing, counter financing of terrorism,sukuk, Islamic microfinancing, zakat invesment, waqaf and many other related areas. All papers can be submitted to normah645@salam.uitm.edu.my for initial review.

ANU Conferment Ceremony

Day Four

Our Australian visits coincided with ANU’s Conferring of Awards Ceremony. ARI’s research associate Dr Roszana Tapsir received her PhD degree from ANU with her research titled ”Auditors’ Perceptions of Financial Controller Behaviors: The Existence of Positivity and Negativity Biases”, Congratulations (Dr Rozana is an active member of ARI's Asia-Pacific Forensic Accounting Research Centre - AFARe). The conferment ceremony was followed by a cocktail networking meeting with researchers and business leaders who were mostly alumni members of ANU. A researcher, Dr Peter Radoll was specifically recognized at the meeting for his research in exploring why Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders are 69 per cent less likely to have household access to computer and the internet.
Both Dr Rozana and Professor Dr Normah got the opportunity to meet up with ANU Chancellor, Professor the Honourable Gareth Evans AO QC. The networking cocktail event was also fruitful as researchers get together to discuss possible research works that would benefit the university and Australia as a country. A total of 649 graduates obtained their degrees during the conferment ceremony. What is also interesting about the event is the full listing of graduate names being published in Canberra's main newspaper - The Canberra Times. Congratulations Dr Roszana, we are very proud of you

Sizeable Group AFARe Seminar

As per Friday afternoon, the total number of regitered participants for our International Conference for Forensic Accounting & Financial Criminology stood at 190and counting. The conference will be held on 16-17 June at the Kuala Lumpur Tower. A one-day PhD colloqium will be held prior to the conference on 15th June 2009.

Collaboration with MYAA & MAREF

A meeting was held today to discuss the possibility of collaboration between ARI, the Malaysian Accounting Association (MYAA) and MAREF. The newly appointed MYAA President Prof Dr Ibrahim Kamal and his exco members have proposed two seminar dates. The first seminar targets accounting teachers from secondary schools and matriculation colleges. This will be held on 13th August 2009. The second seminar will be in February 2010 which will target university and polytechnic lecturers.

ARI Monthly Meeting

All ARI Members: Director, Deputy Director, Heads of Research Centres, Heads of SIGs, Research Fellows, Research Associates - Please be informed that the next monthly May) meeting will be on 8th May 2009 at 2.45 pm, meeting room level 12 SAAS. All members are invited.

Case Study Research in Forensic Accounting

ARI and the Faculty of Accountancy are inviting academic staff and post-graduate students who are keen to write case study research on some of Malaysia's very own companies. JoFRA's first issue under the Emerald Publishing Company (which will published in June 2010)will produce special issues in Forensic Accounting and Financial Criminology. Please refer to ARI website for Notes to Prospective Authors. A book of Readings in Forensic Accounting will also be published by the Asia-Pacific Forensic Accounting Research Centre (AFARe)in December 2009. Interested individuals please contact me or AP Dr Rozainun for detail requirements.

Listing of Conference Proceedings with ISI Thomson

In our effort to increase the number of citations for our paper (this is the main requirement for research university KPI), the normal focus had always been to publish our articles in Scopus or ISI-Thomson. These are the only two publishing entities that have the mechanism to compute citation indexes. As such, it is natural that we want to publish in journals that are indexed with ISI-Thomson & Scopus. Another avenue available for UiTM & specifically for ARI is for us to register our conferences with ISI or Scopus. During his recent visit to UiTM, Mr Raj from ISI gave me this link that we can use to register our conferences.
The URL for the Conference Proceedings Citation Index (CPCI) evaluation standards.

http://isiwebofknowledge.com/products_tools/multidisciplinary/webofscience/cpci/cpciessay/

ARI's Forthcoming Conferences

ARI will be kept busy within the next few months as we will be organising & co-organising both national and international conferences. These are efforts in enhancing the number of papers/articles for possible publications in our journals. We hope to increase the number of issues per year. Our target is to publish four issues per year for both MAR and JoFRA and two issues/year for APMAJ. Forthcoming seminar and conferences are:
i. Audit Quality Rating Seminar, 13th May 2009 at the SC
ii. ISI-Journal Writing Seminar/Workshop with Prof Binchan, 1-5/6/09
iii. Doctoral Colloqium, 15th June 2009 at ARI Seminar Room
iv. Int Conference on Forensic Acc & Financial Criminology, 16-17 June 09
v. National Seminar on Sustainability Reporting 2nd July 2009
vi. National MACFEA Seminar on 4-5 August 2009
vii. National Accounting Academic Conference, tentatively at the end of November 09