More Networking Visits

As Professor Dr Rashidah, ARI Deputy Director will be attending the Fraud Summit 2011 in Conpenhagen in April this year, she has arranged to meet up with some scholars in the United Kingdom who have agreed in principle for possible research collaboration with the Accounting Research Institute. To date, four universities and research centre that have agreed for a meeting and discussion are namely Oxford Centre in Islamic Studies, Islamic Finance Department of the University of Durham, University of Dundee and University of Birmingham. Prof Shidah has also been invited to give talk and seminar on Islamic Accounting & Finance at the University of Dundee and University of Birmingham. Congratulations Prof Shidah. We hope 2011 will bring more international networking and collaborations for ARI...

ARI-CCM Collaboration

The Accounting Research Institute and the Company Commision of Malaysia (CCM) has agreed in principle to conduct a joint research project on "The Governance and Financial Management of Non-profit Organizations in Malaysia". As far as ARI is concerned, we have initiated our research by visiting the Singapore Charity Comission and non-profit organization office last January. Through imterviews and site visits, we learned first hand how Singapore has beem succesful in managing its charity and non-profit organizations. To date, a concept paper on NPO Governance has been prepared by ARI reseachers. A one-day research seminar cum workshop to meet up and discuss with non-profit organizations has been arranged either on 19 or 25 May 2011. A meeting to discuss the workshop will be held on 11 March 2011 at the CCM.

A Visit to SAHABAT

In this new collaborative research with INFORMM, ARI researchers had to learn many new things. Some of these new things require us to re-assess our own thought-processes. Prof Dr Rusli Ismail who is heading this collaborative research reminded us to get rid of our own negative perceptions and stigma about HIV patients and other drug users. Whilst in the most ideal situation we want them to "turn over and become normal again", in reality it is not easy for these hard core addicts to "turn over". Our forthcoming research collaboration focuses on "Intervention and Harm Reduction programs". For HIV patients, two of the most popular harm reduction programs are namely "methadone" and "Needle Syringe Exchange Program or NSEP". After our morning discussions with INFORMM researchers, we were taken to visit one of the NSEP centre in Kota Bharu - SAHABAT. SAHABAT is basically funded by two NGOs, Malaysian AIDS Council & Malaysian Aid Foundation. It was interesting to learn that SAHABAT employs youth, some of whom were former drug addicts themselves. Through SAHABAT, researchers are able to identify core factors that contribute to drug addictions. Our "harm reduction" research is an effort to "contain" the negative effect of HIV. Whilst our primary focus should always be to educate and to prevent our youngters from drug ediction, efforts should also be deliberately done to "contain" HIV from becoming an epidemic. After some briefing by staff at SAHABAT, we were shown their beautiful vegetable farm nearby. What a heartfelt experience. The visit to SAHABAT makes us realize that this forthcoming research is an important milestone and a significant corporate social responsibility on our part. After all, research is not just about publication. We will be just as happy if our findings contribute significantly to our society and our beloved country :]

Visit to INFORMM

ARI wishes to thank the Institute for Research in Molecular Medicine (INFORMM - another HICoE) for their great hospitality during our recent visit there. ARI researchers: Prof Dr Normah, Prof Datin Dr Suzana, Associate Prof Dr Wee Shu Hui and Senior Lecturer Sharifah Fadzlon paid a visit to INFORMM office at the USM Kelantan campus. We were at INFORMM to discuss our forthcoming collaborative research titled "Drug Use Disorder - HIV Dual Epidemics: Cost-Effectiveness of Intervention". This research project will see a collaboration of two HICoEs: one whose focus is on molecular medicine and the other whose forte is in accounting. Such science & art collaboration will see new contribution to the body of knowledge. Though there's a fair amount of literature on "cost-effectiveness" in Drug Disorder studies,ARI's contribution will be mainly in three areas: Cost dimension, benefit dimension and effectiveness dimension. In the cost and management accounting literature, costs include both "direct" and "indirect" elements. Whilst some costs are easily measurable, others are harder to measure. In the case of "Drug Use Disorder" for example, some of the "hard to measure" indirect costs may involve "costs" such as "reputational lost", "frustration suffered by family", "lost of job", "divorces" and many other opportunity costs. How would one measures all these costs?. The collaborative study is about weighing the "cost of Intervention" with the benefits that we can bring about if the Drug Use Disorder can be effectively managed. Whilst our INFORMM scientist researchers support the "experiments" related to drug use disorder patients, ARI's researchers will provide a comprehensive social dimension of costs. All in all we have been very impressed with the research facilities available at INFORMM. Our next stage is to identify and approach possible national and international funders....If there's a will, there's a way

Congratulations Tan Sri Dato' Sri Tay Ah Lek

ARI wishes to congratulate Tan Sri Dato' Sri Tay Ah Lek, the Managing Director of Public Bank Berhad over the conferment of Honorary Membership of CPA Australia. The event which took place this morning at the residence of Australias High Commissioner was jointly hosted by CPA Australia and the Australia High Commissioner HE Mr Miles Lupa. As a council member of CPA Australia in Malaysia, Prof Dr Normah was invited to the event. Congratulations Tan Sri..

AML/CFT Seminar in Singapore

Prof Dr Normah Omar has been invited to speak at the Anti-Money Laundering/Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Seminar in Singapore. The seminar which is scheduled to be held on 25th March 2011 is organized by the CCFT Consortium and will be hosted by the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS). As a researcher, Prof Normah will be sharing her research findings on global trends in ML/TF. It is indeed an honour for ARI to have received the invitation...

Eight PhD Graduates for May 2011 Convocation

ARI wishes to congratulate eight of our students who will receive their scroll during the forthcoming convocation in May 2011. The eights graduates are namely: (1) Dr Yaseen, (2) Dr Jamaliah, (3) Dr Aliza, (4)Dr Rapiah, (5) Dr Suhaily, (6)Dr Sharifah Norzehan, (7) Dr Siti Rosmini and (8) Dr Mohd Ariff. Congratulations all, we are very proud of you

Congratulations Dr Tuan Zainun

ARI wishes to congratulate Dr Tuan Zainun who had recently completed her PhD in Management Accounting. Tuan Zainun was supervised by the very able Prof Dr Malcolm Smith from Edith Cowan University in Western Australia. We hope Tuan Zainun will be able to contribute significantly to the CIMA-UiTM Asian Management Accounting Research Centre (AMARC).

Congratulations MACC Chief Commissioner

ARI wishes to congratulate the Chief Commissioner of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), Dato' Abu Kassim Mohamed for being named "100 Influential People in Business Ethics for 2010". The global recognition is given by a New York-based Ethisphere Institute. According to BERNAMA, Dato' Abu Kassim who is ranked 4th in the eminent list was adjudged for his role in the government and regulatory practices category. BERNAMA further reported that Dato' Abu Kassim who is the only Malaysian in the list dominated by mostly Americans and Europeans, has been selected along with 99 others who are said to have made a significant impact in the realm of business ethics. In our recent International Conference in Financial Criminology ICFC 2010), Dato' Abu Kassim was one of the conference speakers who had received a very high evaluation by participants. Congratulations Dato', we are very proud of you....

VCSP Deliverables 2010

ARI is glad to have participated in two of UiTM's Vice Chancellor Special Projects (VCSP)under the project title "Strategic Alliances with Top Notch Research Centres". The first collaborative research project "A Survey on Target Costing and Balanced Scorecard Practices of Asian Manufacturing Companies" had involved several top notch Asian universities. They are namely National Taiwan University, Seoul National University, University of Chullalongkorn, Singapore Management University, University of Xianmen China and Konan University, Japan. In addition to the research project, an MOU will be signed between UiTM & National Taiwan University for possible staff and student exchange programs. The second project, "Accountability and Financial Reporting of Non-Profit Organisations" had involved a reputable research centre, International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR) from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. For the second project, ICPVTR has agreed in principle to sponsor a research workshop in Kuala Lumpur in May 2011. Whilst the two projects fulfilled the deliverables for UiTM's VCSP project, more importantly, ARI as a HICoE had successfully initiated two very important international collaborations....