ISGFC 2013 - Bangkok

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) thanks the Chullalongkorn Business School (CBS) of the Chullalongkorn University, Thailand for hosting the International Seminar on Governance and Financial Criminology (ISGFC 2014).  Researchers from at least four countries, namely Malaysia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Thailand participated in the seminar.  In addition, there were also representatives from the Malaysian Institute of Integrity (IIM), Malaysian Accounting Research and Education Foundation (MAREF) and HELP College University who attended and participated in the plenary sessions of the seminar.  Papers presented have included topics on financial criminology, the governance and accountability of non-profit organisations (NPOs), Corporate Integrity, Corporate Governance, Anti Money Laundering and Anti Financing of Terrorism.   In a research meeting that follows, the research groups - ARI, CBS, University of Indonesia, HELP University College, IIM and MAREF agreed to organize an annual seminar related to the topics of corporate governance and financial criminology in the future

ARI-CCM Memorandum of Understanding

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) and Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) today.  The MOU allows a collaborative research on non-profit organisations (NPO) governance.  Globally, especially in developed countries such as USA and United Kingdom, NPO has been considered as a "third sector".  Generally, NPO plays a key role in a country's development through social contributions, such as human rights, health, education and other critical social needs.  The MOU was signed by SSM Chief Executive Officer Mohd Naim Darwish and UiTM Vice Chancellor Tan Sri Dato' Sri Professor Ir Dr Sahol Hamid Abu Bakar.  The event was witnessed by Deputy Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah.

ICGMF 2013 in New Zealand

In its effort to enhance international collaborations, the Accounting Research Institute (ARI) will be co-organizing an international conference in New Zealand.  Themed "Good Governance, Ethics and Integrity", the International Conference on Governance, Management & Financial Criminology (ICGMF 2013) will be hosted by the Waikato Management School, University of Waikato, New Zealand.  ICGMF 2013 will be co-organized with ARI, Faculty of Commerce & Accountancy, Chulalongkorn University Thailand and the Institute of Public Enterprise, India.  Selected papers will be considered for review for possible publication in indexed journals.  A special key note paper on the governance of public sector will be featured on the first day of the conference.  Those interested to participate may contact the secretariate at: icgmf@gmail.com

 

Islamic Microfinancing: Baju Kurung Handover Ceremony

One collaborative research undertaken by ARI researchers under its niche Islamic Financial Criminology is related to Islamic Microfinance.  The project which is headed by Professor Dr Rashidah Abdul Rahman examines the current gap in microfinance model.  Generally, entrepreneurs indicated their wish to have a supplier to complete the supply chain model of the microfinance-based business.  As such, ARI has sought the cooperation of Mydin Holdings Berhad to facilitate these entrepreneurs.  The first phase microfinance research project has also involved Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM), financier of the microfinance credit.  Through Sahabat (AIM's entrepreneur network), entrepreneurs undertook a baju kurung tailoring project with Mydin. In conjunction with the collaborative action research project between ARI, AIM, MAIS Zakat Selangor Berhad (MZSB), and Mydin Mohamed Holdings Bhd, a Baju Kurung Handover Ceremony has been held at Mydin Training Center this morning. During the ceremony, the first batch of 182 baju kurungs sewn by a group of AIM sahabats from Tanjung Karang, have been  handed over by the Managing Director of AIM, Datuk Zabidah Ismail to the Executive Director of Mydin, Mr. Salim Ali Mydin. In her opening speech, Datuk Zabidah personally thanks everyone involve in this project especially ARI and Mydin for providing wider social networks and support structure for AIM sahabats to involve in economic activities, thus improving their household income.    

Welcome New Cohort of AFC713 Class

The new cohort of the Master in Forensic Accounting and Financial Criminology program at Universiti Teknologi MARA is currently undertaking one of the core courses of the program: Money Laundering and Financial Criminology (AFC713).  Basically the course is divided into two components - money laundering and financial criminology.  The money laundering aspect of the course reviews the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti Terrorism Financing Act (AMLATFA) 2001, examines mutual evaluation country reports of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and its regional associates.  In the case of Malaysia, the FATF's regional associate is the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG).  In monitoring the anti money laundering and counter financing of terrorism (AML.CFT) regime, member countries (of either FATF or APG) are required to comply to the 40 + 9 recommendations (now reviewed as 40 new recommendations). Guest speakers (from the industry, regulators or enforcement agencies) are also invited to give talks to the class.  Meanwhile, the financial criminology aspect of the course identifies financial fraud cases, examines fraud risk indicators, develops mitigating tools and proposes investigation techniques.  Today, the students presented their cases in classes. Whilst three groups presented global and local money laundering cases, another three groups examined the levels of country compliance on one group of reporting institution known as the designated non-financial business and profession (DNFBPs) of thirty countries globally.

Visit from Universitas Trunojoyo Madura, Indonesia

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) thanks delegates from Universitas Trunojoyo Madura, Indonesia who visited our Shah Alam campus recently.  The four-member delegations were headed by the Dean of the Faculty of Economy, Pro. Dr. M. Nizarul Alim.  Discussions focused mainly on potential research collaboration in the areas of Islamic Finance and Wakaf Management.  To signify the visit, a letter of intent was signed by both Dean Nizarul and Professor Dr Normah Omar, director of ARI.  As such, researchers from ARI's  Islamic Finance & Wakaf Cluster will be preparing a research proposal together with researchers from Universitas Trunojaya.  Indeed, in Indonesia, there are a lot of universities that have been successfully set up through Wakaf financing and they would be great case  studies for the research project. An MOU will soon be drafted to formalise the collaboration.

IFCTF 2013

The annual International Financial Criminology and Terrorism Financing Conference 2013 will be back with more interesting stuff.  This is in view of the fact that Malaysia will be undergoing the Mutual Evaluation (ME) assessment of the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) scheduled for April 2014.  As such is it expected that the conference will provide interesting and practical topics that could enhance participants' knowledge and competency in the AML/CFT area.  Again, for the third time, the Accounting Research Institute (ARI) is greatly honoured to be invited to be part of the organizing committee.  As per last year, the main organizers of IFCTF 2013 will be the Compliance Officer Networking Group (CONG) and the Asian Institute of Finance (AIF).  Today, two ARI researchers - ARI Director Prof Dr Normah and Fellow AP Dr Jamaliah attended the preliminary meeting of the IFCTF 2013 Committee.  Dates, venue and theme of the conference will be confirmed by the next committee meeting in June 2013.  We look forward to another very interesting conference...

ARI-CCM Collaboration

Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) will formalise their collaboration soon.  A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) are scheduled to be signed by both parties on 18th June 2013 at UiTM.  In principle, CCM has agreed to engage the Accounting Research Institute (ARI) to undertake a research project on the Governance of Non-Profit Organisations (NPO) in Malaysia.  The preliminary focus of this project will be on those NPOs that are currently registered with CCM.  Globally, NPO is a huge sector.  In fact, in many developed countries such as the US and UK, the NPO sector has been recognised as a "third sector" after the "public sector" and the "private sector".  If strategically governed, NPOs have the potential to contribute significantly to nation building.  Today, three officers from CCM came to ARI office to finalise the documents and to discuss the signing event.

ICFC 2013 - Day 2

Day 2:

The second day of the conference started with two more plenary sessions in the morning.  Plenary Session 6 titled "Forensic Investigative Techniques and Procedures" was moderated by Professor Dr David Chaikin from University of Sydney, Australia. Meanwhile, the two invited panelists comprised Mr Awang Armadajaya, Deputy Public Prosecutor, Attorney General Chambers and Mr Sukdev Singh, Director of Forensic Investigations, KPMG Malaysia.  Essentially, the speakers highlighted on two very important points: Forensic investigation needs to be properly documented and it must be evidence-based.  Plenary 7 titled "Accounting & Legal Issues From Australian Perspectives" saw two professors from Australia sharing their views.  Prof David Chaikin of the University of Sydney Business School was a practising lawyer specialising in multi-jurisdictional investigations, transnational commercial and criminal litigation, as well as offshore corporate and banking law. He has worked as a consultant to the United Nations, the OECD-based Financial Action Task Force and the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering.  The second speaker, Professor  Dr Paul Barnes was previously Professor of Finance and Fraud Risk Management at Nottingham Business School in the UK. He is a Chartered Certified Accountant with degrees in history, management science, and a Ph.D. in economics.  To date, he has written a number of books and published many academic papers in a wide variety of journals in the UK, Australia and the USA. One of his books Stock Market Efficiency, Insider Dealing and Market Abuse was recently published in Australia.  Following the two plenary sessions were concurrent paper presentations by researchers.  the papers have been effectively divided into four separate categories: "Fraud & Corruption", "Taxation & Zakat", "forensic accounting" and Governance & Ethical issues. 

More than 30 research papers that were mainly in the areas of financial criminology and Islamic finance were  presented. Most of these papers would be accordingly reviewed and hopefully published in a special issue of the Malaysian Accounting Review journal.  Finally, ICFC 2013 came to a closure with a brief concluding remarks by Prof Dr Normah Omar, director of the Accounting Research Institute (ARI).  Till we meet again in the 6th International Conference on Financial Criminology 2014 .......

 

 

 

International Conference on Financial Criminology (ICFC) 2013

Day 1:

The opening ceremony of the 5th International Conference on Financial Criminology was successfully officiated by the Vice Chancellor of Universiti Teknologi MARA, Dato' Sri Prof. Ir Dr Sahol Hamid Abu Bakar.  Themed Global Trends in Financial Crimes in the New Economies, the two-day ICFC 2013 conference has attracted international participants from 11 countries, namely -Thailand, Singapore, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Republic of Iran, United Kingdom, Australia, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong and New Zealand.  For local participants, apart from academics from public and private universities, there are also practitioners  from the Accountants General Office, Auditor General Office, Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL), Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM), Securities Commission (SC), banks, local authorities, Registrar of Societies (ROS), Malaysian Institute of Corporate Governance (MICG), Cooperative Commission of Malaysia, Ministry of Finance, Association of Fraud Examiners (ACFE), Association of Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS), Audit firms (including Big Four firms), Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC), Inland Revenue Board Malaysia (IRBM), Royal Malaysia Customs, Royal Malaysia Police, Labuan Offshore and the Attorney General Chambers (AGC). 

The day started with a welcome speech by the vice chancellor.  This was then followed by the keynote speech "Economic Crimes and Governance" by Tan Sri Dato' Seri Haji Megat Najmuddin bin Datuk Seri Dr Haji Megat Khas which was read by his representative Mr Ahmad Shahab Haji Din from MICG.  It has been emphasized in the keynote speech that there is strong correlation between the occurence of economic crimes with the level of governance being enforced in any organisation.  In a nutshell, effective governance requires more than mere compliance of rules and procedures.  The keynote address set the direction of the three plenary sessions afterwards.  The first plenary session which was moderated by Tuan Awang Armadajaya (AGC) focused on the topic "The Evolution of Forensic Accounting in the Asia Pacific Region: What Does the Future Hold?".  Two invited speakers to discuss the topic were namely (i) Mr Chris Fordham, Managing Partner, Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services Asia Pacific, Ernst & Young Advisory Services Ltd (UK)  and (ii) Mr Petrus Gimbad, Member of the Board of Directors, Sabah Development Bank.  The discussions highlighted the fact that globally, financial crimes which are dubbed as "crimes of the new millinieum" are on the rise.  Whilst enforcement agencies and regulators are enhancing their competency level in this new knowledge, perpetrators are finding ways to hide "evidences" and to destroy audit trail.  As such, effective fraud prevention programs must integrate multiple investigation techniques with the latest technologies and skills.

The second plenary session titled "Combating Tax Evasion and Money Laundering" was moderated by Professor Dr Normah Omar from ARI.  To discuss the topic, ICFC 2013 has invited two speakers namely (i) The Chief Executive Officer of the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia, Tan Sri Dr Mohd Shukor Haji Mahfar and Mr Aaron Lau, an accredited trainer for the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) certification program.  Since 2010, the Anti Money Laundering and Anti Terrorism Financing Act (AMLATFA 2001) has been amended to include Tax Evasion as one of the predicate offences under this jurisdiction.  As such, tax evasion constitutes a "proceed from an ill-gotten gain activity".  Tan Sri Dr Shukor further proposed for the setting up of a "task force" from among various regulatory and enforcement agencies when investigating money laundering and tax evasion cases. 

Professor Dr Syed Noh Syed Ahmad, moderated the third plenary session on "Economic Crimes & their Impact on the Socio Economic Development".  The two speakers for this session were (i) Dato' Akbar Satar, President of Transparency International Malaysia and (ii) Tan Sri Datuk Seri Dr Sulaiman Mahbob, Chairman, Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER).  Discussions centred on the "causes of economic crimes" and the "costs of Crimes".  Globally, economic crimes have escalated and there is an urgent need for governments and countries to review  possible "loopholes" in public and private policies that might give rise to financial crimes. 

After the lunch break, participants were presented with two more "heated" plenary sessions.  The fourth plenary discussion titled "Prosecuting Economic Crimes" were presented by Supt Lee Ewe Kiang from the Royal Malaysia Police (RMP), Tuan Syed of AGC and Ms Shanti Geoffrey, from the Prosecution and Enforcement Division of the Securities Commission Malaysia.  The three speakers gave relevant statistics to implicate the seriousness of the subject matter.  It was concluded that the fight against economic crimes should be shouldered by everyone.  Though it is almost impossible to totally eradicate financial crime, everyone can play a role to prevent fraud from happening. 

The final plenary session for the day was deliberated by three more renowned speakers: Dato' Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed, Chief Commissioner of MACC; Mr Alex Tan of PwC Malaysia and Mr Nizam Ali of the Malaysian Institute of Integrity (IIM).  Basically, the speakers discussed on the topic "The Global Challenges of Economic and Financial Crimes and How They Affect You and I".  Participants were given a "small survey" to find out if they have given any kind of "bribes" within the last 12 months.  The "result" from a total of 74 sample participants  implicate that only a small number of four respondents (5%) have admitted bribery.  Ironically, "Corruption Perceived Indexed" stood at a much higher rate, hence the issue of "reality vs perception" needs to be  specifically addressed.  Instead of subjecting themselves to "perceptional verdict", countries should develop their own indices.  Mr Nizam of IIM spoke of the Corporate Integrity System that had been initiatited by his institute as a possible instrument to measure and benchmark integrity at work places.  Throughout all five plenary sessions on the first day, participants were given the opportunity to interact with the invited speakers.  The face-to-face interactions have produced some very interesting suggestions and recommendations.