Launching of the Mindanao Halal Holding Corporation

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) reaches another milestone when it was invited by Mr Amanoding Ismail, the President of the Philippines Association of Islamic Accountants (PAIA) to participate in the establishment of a new investment holding company in the Philippines.  The soft launch of the Mindanao Halal Holding Corporation (MHHC) was recently invited to become one of MHHC's International Board of Directors.  The creation of the MHHC is the outgrowth of a deep study of the potential growth in the Southern Philippines whose development had long been overdue and marked by neglect.  MHHC positions itself as a primer investing channel for overseas and local capital, by identifying areas of rapid growth, and nurturing basic livelihood and transforming little markets into community-sized ones according to Islamic tenets and international ethical standards. 

Beside involved in business activities, MHHC will be promoting Islamic Finance, Zakat, Waqaf, social business and Islamic microfinance in the Philippines.  As a partner, ARI will have a great role to play in the Philippines, both in terms of providing trainings in Islamic Financial Criminology as well as participating in international research programmes.  The launching of the event was graced by the Chairman, Board of Accountancy, Professional Regulation Commission Philippines, Hon. Joel Tan-Torres.  During the event, Professor Dr Normah Omar from the Accounting Research Institute ARI was a guest speaker and presented a paper titled ""Potential Implications of the ASEAN economic community on islamic Finance Industry". 

ARI International Collaboration with PICPA and PAIA

The globalization agenda of the Accounting Research Institute (ARI) will reach another level when it collaborates with two professional organisations in the Republic of Philippines - the Philippines Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA) and the Philippines Association of Islamic Accountants (PAIA) in July 2016.  ARI Director, Professor Dr Normah Omar and Deputy Director Associate Professor Dr Roshayani Arshad were recently invited to the "Joint Induction of Officers and New Members" at the Mallberry Suites Business Hotel, Cagayan de Oro City in Mindanao, Philippines.  During his visit to ARI early this year, Mr Amanoding Ismail, PAIA President indicated his interest to collaborate with ARI in training PAIA members in the areas of Islamic Finance and Financial Criminology.  During the induction event, two more professional associations were launched in the Philiipines - International Council of Islamic Finance Educators and ASEAN Federation of Islamic Accountants.  During the collaborative meetings in Cagayan de Oro City, it was decided that an international conference - International Conference on Islamic Economics and Finance with the theme :Human Capital Development in the Islamic Finance Industry will be held in Manila in February 2017.

ARI Welcomes our new Research Fellow

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) welcomes our latest addition, Associate Professor Dr Ayub Md Som from the Faculty of Chemical Engineering.  Dr Ayub research interests are in the areas Process Systems Engineering, Expert Systems Modelling, Multi-Parametric Programming and Model Based Predictive Control. Dr Ayub will be a welcome addition to ARI as he can help develop a Decision Support System for ARI's niche research in Islamic Financial Criminology (IFC).  ARI's research in Islamic Financial Criminology is currently conducted through four strategic clusters: Islamic-Based Value Creation products and governance; Corporate Integrity and Risk Management; Anti Money-Laundering Regime and Fraud Detection Methodologies.  The development of a Decision Support System  will integrate the four clusters and digitize the various research products for ease of commercialization. 

ARI Receives Two International Recognitions

Following a successful 2015 in terms of global recognitions, members of the Accounting Research Institute (ARI HICoE) is equally excited for hopefully another interesting year in 2016.  As of early June 2016, ARI has received confirmation for two international awards from the Acquisition Finance Online Magazine which is based in the United Kingdom: (i)  Islamic Financial Criminology Research Body of the Year for a Consecutive Year,  ACCOUNTING RESEARCH INSTITUTE - Universiti Teknologi MARA (UITM) and (ii) GAMECHANGER of the Year, Prof Dr Normah Haji Omar,  ACCOUNTING RESEARCH INSTITUTE - Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM).  This is indeed a significant awards for ARI as "Islamic Financial Criminology" is niche research agenda for the HICoE initiative.  When we first started in 2010, Islamic Financial Criminology was just Buzzwords.  Today, it is a new corpus of knowledge for the Islamic Finance Industry.  The focus of Islamic Financial Criminology is three-prongs: (1)  Identification of new products for the Islamic Finance Industry; (2) Developing enterprise governance mechanism for the Islamic Finance Industry and (3) to propose effective anti-fraud programs for the industry.  Listed below is the actual confirmation from ACQ.

We are pleased to confirm the category win(s) as

MALAYSIA - ISLAMIC FINANCIAL CRIMINOLOGY RESEARCH BODY OF THE YEAR FOR A CONSECUTIVE YEAR, ACCOUNTING RESEARCH INSTITUTE - UITM

receiving the highest number of nominations in the indicated category.

Working Visit from Malaysian Institute of Integrity

The Accounting Research Institute welcomes officers from its long-standing research and consulting collaborative partner - Malaysian Institute of Integrity (IIM) - Mr Mohd Nizam Ali, Wan Noraini and Mr Rais from the Centre for Knowledge and Consultancy on Integrity for their visit today.

IIM's role is crucial in the establishment of one of ARI's leading research cluster in Corporate Ethics and Integrity.  In 2010, researchers from ARI together with some leading researchers from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF) and the Securities Industry Development Corporation (SIDC) developed a Corporate Integrity Assessment Questionnaire (CIAQ).  The Corporate Integrity System Assessment Questionnaire (CIAQ) is used to evaluate implemented Corporate Integrity Systems.  CIAQ comprises twelve important dimensions namely Vision & Goals, Infrastructure, Confidential Advice & Support,

Ethics communications, Ethics Training & Education, Disciplinary Rewards & Measure, Measurement Research & Assessment, Organisational Culture, Whistleblowing, Leadership, Legal Compliance, Policies & Rules and Corporate Social Responsibility.  During the visit today, the team discussed strategies and efforts to enhance wider implementation of CIAQ among corporate players.  The meeting further discussed the need to source research budget to support research and the digitization of CIAQ as a measure of corporate integrity at workplaces.  In the long run, CIAQ will form an important "CEO Dashboard" item in corporations.  It is expected that a strong corporate integrity culture will result in healthy capital market development. Through digitized corporate Integrity Assessment tool, corporations can analyse and measure their own integrity implementation scores.  This preventive measure will hopefully reduce corruption and financial leakages in organisations.

Courtesy Visit to Inland Revenue Board

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) team from Universiti Teknologi MARA paid a courtesy visit to Inland Revenue Board (LHDN) Head Office in Cyberjaya to meet up with Tan Sri Datuk Wira Dr Mohd Shukor Mahfar, Chief Executive Officer and his team.

The main aims of the visit was (i) to promote ARI's four post-graduate programs - Master in Islamic Financial Criminology, Master in Islamic Finance & Muamalat, Doctor of Philosophy in Financial Criminology and Doctor of Philosophy in Islamic Finance and Muamalat; (ii) to promote ARI's upcoming "Corporate Governance Symposium"; (iii) to promote ARI-PBBM Jeddah Leadership Training program in November 2016.  Thank you Tan Sri for your kind hospitality and openness towards new ideas.....

ARI Journal Online System

The Accounting Research Institute  (ARI) is happy to introduce its Journal Online System (JOS) for its two indexed journals: Malaysian Accounting Review (MAR) and Asia Pacific Management Accounting Journal (APMAJ).  Asia-Pacific Management Accounting Journal is jointly published by the Asia-Pacific Management Accounting Association (APMAA - which is based in Japan), Accounting Research Institute & Faculty of Accountancy and University Publication Centre (UiTM Press) ofUniversiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). Its initial publication was once a year but effective 2010, the journal issue is increased to twice a year.  APMAJ focuses on showcasing findings related to management accounting theory, concepts and empirical research within the Asia-Pacific region. Every year, APMAA hosts a management accounting forum. One of the main source of papers or articles for this journal comes from such forum.  Effective April 2016, the Accounting Research Institute has developed a journal online system (JOS).  Interested researchers can register and submit their articles in the following two URLs: 

http://arionline.uitm.edu.my/ojs/index.php/APMAJ and 

http://arionline.uitm.edu.my/ojs/index.php/MAR.  

The Malaysian Accounting Review (MAR) is an international refereed journal of the Accounting Research Institute and the Faculty of Accountancy, University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. This journal is launched in the hope of stimulating quality research into accounting and accounting related areas. Researchers are strongly encouraged to use this publication as a platform for disseminating their research findings to the members of the academia and the community at large. Meanwhile, the Asia-Pacific Management Accounting Journal is jointly published by the Asia-Pacific Management Accounting Association (APMAA - which is based in Japan), Accounting Research Institute & Faculty of Accountancy and UiTM Press, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM).  Its initial publication in 2006 was once a year but effective 2010, the journal issue was increased to twice a year. APMAJ focuses on showcasing findings related to management accounting theory, concepts and empirical research within the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.  Every year, APMAA hosts an international management accounting conference. One of the main sources of papers or articles for this journal comes from such conference. The two journals are currently indexed by Excellence Research Australia (ERA), Australian Business Deans Councils (ABDC), Ebscohost, Ulrich. In addition, APMAJ is also indexed by the Thomson Reuters Emerging Citation Index.

Certified Internal Auditors

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) congratulates its two officers: The Institute of Quality and Knowledge Advancement, or InQKA of Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.  As internal auditors, the two officers are now responsible to do the following tasks:

Ms Wan Mariati Wan Omar and Ms Azizah Hamzah who received a certification as "Certified Internal Auditors" for ISO9001:2008 from

• Gain a comprehensive overview of the ISO 9001:2008 series 
• Learn how to set objectives for, plan and perform a quality standards audit
• Understand the implications of employee behaviour on quality management audits
• Gain the ability to confidently report findings and take corrective action.

Congratulations Farah Aida Nazri

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) congratulates its first Young Researcher Scheme (YRS) scholar, Farah Aida Nazeri who has recently successfully completed her PhD program for her thesis titled "Critical Success Factors of Micro Entrepreneurs Under the AIM And Asnaf’s Economic Development Programme".  The YRS program was initiated in 2012 by the university to support the development and sustainability of Centres of Excellence (CoE) in Universiti Teknologi MARA.  Successful scholar will be placed at the CoE where their main core activities will be research  and he/she will need to teach 1-2 courses in area of expertise.  Farah Aida's VIVA VOCE was held at the university's Institute of Postgraduate Studies (IPSIS) on 13th June 2016.  She was supervised by Professor Dr Normah Omar and Professor Dr Rashidah Abdul Rahman.  Thank you examiners, Associate Professor Dr Nawal Kassim from UiTM, Prof Dato' Haji Mustafa USIM and Prof Dr Hakem from Tunisia Business School.  Appreciation also goes to Professor Dr Nafsiah Mohamed who chaired the VIVA VOCE.  Farah's PhD will be PhD in Accounting (AC990) from the Faculty of Accountancy, Universiti Teknologi MARA. Congratulations from all of us at ARI.

Congratulations Dr Norazida

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) of Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia (UiTM) congratulates its research associate fellow, Dr Norazida Mohammed for her recent appointment as an external examiner for an international baccalaureate program, B Tech (Hons)degree in Forensic Accounting and Auditing at Harare Institute of Technology Zimbabwe.

Dr Norazida obtained her PhD from Teesside Business School (UK) in 2013 with a thesis titled Financial Statements Fraud Control: Exploring Internal Control Strategies in Two Malaysian Public Interest Entities'.  The appointment is a great opportunity for Dr Norazidah and other ARI fellows to forge potential research and academic collaborations with countries in the African continent.  Congratulations....