VCSP- Strategic Alliance With Top Notch Research Centres

I am personally glad to be appointed as the "Project Manager" by the university under the Vice Chancellor Special Project (VCSP Project) titled Strategic Alliance with Top Notch Research Centre. As a HICoE, ARI has been able to play a leading role in this project. Alhamdullillah, to date ARI has managed to secure two research collaborations: (1) A Management Accounting research with the Accounting Research Centre, National Taiwan University (NTU) and (2)A Non-Profit Organization Research with the International Centre of Political Violence & Terrorism Research of the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. We hope to produce meaningful spin-offs in the forms of international publications, joint-conferences and international linkages that will benefit all entities.

Alumni Publication Projects

For 2011, ARI hopes to collaborate with the UiTM Allumni Association and the Office of Deputy Vice Chancellor (student affairs & Allumni)of UiTM in two publications: (1) Who-and-Who of UiTM Allumni and (2) A year Book. A preliminary discussion has been held today between ARI (represented by me), the Allumni Association (represented by the VP Research) and the Deputy Vice Chancellor, We hope this project will take off in the first quarter of 2011 with our own Accountancy allumni. The team needs to define and agree on a scope to focus as it is almost impossible to write on all 400,000 UiTM alumni that the university has produced to date...

Dr Zuraidah's Visit to the University of Riau

ARI wishes to congratulate Associate Professor Dr Zuraidah Sanusi, Head of the Audit & Assurance Special Interest Group at ARI for the recent invitation she received from the University of Riau, Indonesia. Dr Zuraidah has been invited to share her expertise and experiences in conducting successful research projects in the areas of Auditing & Assurance.
One of her research products, AQuR or Audit Quality Rating is currently used by the Malaysian Institute of Accountants to evaluate the performance of Small and Medium Accounting Firms in Malaysia. She is also there to promote Accounting Research Institute.

Formation of The Society of Financial Criminologists

I was informed by some of our Master in Forensic Accounting & Financial Criminology graduates that they are planning to establish and register a new group of professional in forensic accounting. Tentatively it could be known as the Society of Financial Criminologists. In view of the increasing trend in financial fraud and financial crimes, Financial Criminologists are highly specialized professionals who are competent in fraud prevention, fraud investigation and fraud detection. ARI is willing to facilitate the group in making this vision realized in 2011. I was informed that Pakistan has just recently launched its Institute of Forensic Accountants. Perhaps, moving forward, Malaysia should also consider doing the same...

Thank You Prof Omar Masood

I wish to express my sincere thanks to Prof Omar Masood for his contributions as a visiting professor at ARI. He was visiting ARI and the university for two weeks and was involved with a lot of ARI activities. First was the seminar that ARI co-organized with IBFIM where he was the main facilitator. Then the workshop cum seminar that he and Prof Sofian from Trisakni University conducted for ARI staff and post graduate students. He was also involved as speaker for our International conference on Financial Criminology. In between these events was discussions with PhD students and lecturers to discuss papers that he co-authored. Finally, he was kind enough to attend our strategic planning retreat and to give talks on international grants, off-shore post graduate program and ARI international linkages. Thank you sir for your kind contributions.

ARI HICoE Research Progress Presentations

On the third day of ARI's Strategic Planning Retreat, researchers presented their progress reports. I was evaluating papers related to Islamic Financial Criminology. A total of twenty titles were presented by researchers in three parallel sessions. All in all the evaluators are fairly happy with the progress. A total of thirteen research projects have published at least a concept paper in international refereed journals. It is expected that by the next progress presentation in June 2011, researchers would be able to publish one paper with empirical findings in refereed journals. In addition, all researchers will need to present their research results at conferences that are indexed with Scopus or ISI Thomson.

Congratulations Excellence Award Receipients

I wish to congratulate all ARI and Faculty of Accountancy Excellence Award receipients 2010. They certainly deserved the award. Dr Intan Salwani, Dr Kalsom Salleh, Associate Professor Dr Asmah Abdul Aziz and Associate Prof Dr Lai Ming Ling received their awards today during the Innovation Day ceremony held at the Dewan Sri Budiman (DSB). The event was graced by the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Students Affairs and Alumni) YBhg Prof Dato' Dr Abdullah Said. In addition to the yearly excellence award recognition, the Faculty of Accountancy has also won the Vice Chancellor Quality awards for three (3) categories: Best Strategic Planning, Best Processes and Best Overall Achievements. Congratulations.

MITRANS MOHE Audit

Exactly two years ago, the Accounting Research Institute (ARI) underwent the MOHE HICoE audit. I remembered very well the anxiety that all members had to experience. Today, another university's CoE - the Malaysian Institute of Transport (MITRANS)has been shortlisted to go through similar audit. I was invited by MITRANS to attend the briefing session in the morning. As MITRANS has successfully passed the document audit, the assessors are here to validate on site all the documents that have been submitted earlier on. I hope MITRANS will join the bandwagon to become another HICoE (Service thrust) from the university. Good luck...

Islamic Finance & Muamalat Seminar

As speakers to the forthcoming ICFC 2010 conference on 14-15 December 2010, Prof Omar Masood from the University of East London and Prof Sofian from Trisakni University, Indonesia presented their papers today at a 1-day "pre-conference" seminar on Islamic Finance and Muamalat which was organized by the Accounting Research Institute. The audiences are mainly ARI/faculty staff and students. Premised on his own experiences, Omar advised participants to identify industry needs for each research project that they embarked on. it is through understanding such needs that research spin offs can be multiplied and it is much easier to get funding. Prof Sofian, in his own simple and practical illustrations, relate the concepts of Islamic accounting as a fraud deterrent mechanism.

Malaysia Top Business Schools

As a director of ARI, I felt deeply honourned for the invitation extended by the Higher Insstitutions Division of the Ministry of Higher Edication (MOHE) to be part of the bigger team to evaluate the Malaysian Top Business Schools. Currently, two business schools from two local public universities have been accorded the prestigious stature. In essence, top business schools are expected to spearhead development of post graduate programs by focusing on international students, international faculty members, income-generation initiatives, cited publications and to conduct fundamental research projects that bring in high impact to the nation. Since the first recognition was given in 2007, this evaluation is made after their three years in operation.

Signing of Research Agreements

Today we organise a small ceremony to witness the signing of research agreement between ARI and the Accountants General Department for two research projects: The traits and skills of forensic accountants for AGD and Financial Reporting of Malaysian Local Authority.
As a director of ARI, I have to sign on behalf of the researchers. Prof Ibrahim Kamal, the Dean of the Faculty of Accountancy stood as a witness. The first expected deliverable will be produced by the end of October,2010. All researchers for the two projects attended the "ceremony"

Breaking Fast With the Vice Chancellor

As a director of ARI, I was invited by the university's top management to a "Breaking Fast with the Vice Chancellor" at Hotel UiTM. The host of this event was from the Student Affairs department. Deans of faculties, directors of state campuses, directors of centres of excellence and deputy deans (student affairs) have been invited to the event. As UiTM is also the host to a meeting of Deputy Vice Chancellors of public universities to be held tomorrow, deputy vice chancellors were our special guests for the event.

Congratulations Dr Kalsom

ARI wishes to congratulate Dr Kalsom Salleh, Prof Dr Syed Noh Syed Ahmad and Mr Syed Omar Sharifuddin Syed Ikhsan for winning the Best Paper Award at the recent Knowledge Management International Conference. Their paper titled "Learning Factors of Public Sector Accountants and Sharing Process of Tacit Knowledge" won the award under the Knowledge Creation & Knowledge Sharing category. Congratulations...

Breaking Fast with Bank Rakyat

I wish to thank the Bank Rakyat (Selangor Division) for inviting me to their Breaking Fast dinner at the Saujana Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. It is an annual event aimed to show their appreciation to their stakeholders. Bank Rakyat is a two-time winner of the National Award for Management Accounting (NAfMA)competition in Malaysia of which UiTM/ARI through our CIMA-UiTM Asian Management Accounting Research Centre is a joint partner. At the event, Bank Rakyat gave away some donations to some orphans from Klang. Thank you...

CPA Strategic Planning Meeting

As a Divisional Council member, I was invited to participate in the CPA (Australia) strategic planning meeting held at the Gardens Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. To facilitate the full-day meeting, the Malaysian Council Division has invited a renowned business action coach, Mr Peter Lam. All in all it was indeed a successful meeting. Having someone knowledgeable in this area to facilitate us to go through the strategic planning discussion was indeed helpful to us all, particularly for the need to "look at things from outside the box"...

A Birthday Surprise.....

Thanks to all ARI staff for throwing a suprise birthday "party" to both Prof Rashidah & I today. We really appreciate everything: the flowers, the cake and the prayers. Insyaallah we will both work our level best to elevate ARI to greater heights. To all ARI members, thanks for all your supports

Welcome Ramadhan1431

Tentatively the 1st day of Ramadhan 1431 is scheduled this Wednesday, 11th August 2010. I wish all ARI members a peaceful month. I personally would get a lot more things done during the fasting month. Well, there's more time to finish the "literature review" or to complete the "concept papers" or "journal papers" due to the extra morning hours after the sahur breakfast. Perhaps I can expect a lot of papers done after the holy month of Ramadhan.....

A Great Reunion

Every four years, our group: The Diploma in Accountancy Class 1974-1977 will meet. It is always a very happy occasion for all of us, to meet friends. It is a great way to network. . This year (today) we met at Hotel UiTM. In fact a lot of ARI's successful research collaboration have gone through this network of friends who are now holding important positions in the industry. Mohd Hashim is with Petronas; Basil is with Esso; Noraini is with Johnson & Johnson; Paisol is with PNB; Mutalib is an accounting practitioner; Din & Rahman, Rashid, Nik Aziz, Halijah, Zainab, Faridah,Dollah, Ibrahim, Kejol and many others are successful businessmen & businesswomen; Nafisah, Akmal, Norain, Sanip, Mun, Shidah are top officers in the government. We had great time as students in the 1970's and continue to build our friendships till today. uiTM has indeed changed our lives. Thanks friends, till we meet again in 2014....

Highly Competitive FRGS Grants

I am just back from the FRGS evaluation meeting in Malacca. To date, the second round FRGS 2010 (2/FRGS)has seen the highest number of proposals being submitted. Reviewers were very focused looking for projects that fit the requirements of FRGS. The most common problem often faced by reviewers was to look for the fundamental elements of FRGS research in a research proposal. Research should be premised on existing or current problem, the solving of which requires new methodology, new model, enhanced theory. The results expected will be in the forms of new policy or legislation, better quality of life, better sustainability or even improved capability of human capital...

Inaugural Corporate Governance Essay Competition 2010

The Minority Shareholders Watchdog Group (MSWG) is organising an Inaugural Corporate Governance Essay Competition 2010. This competition will be opened to all undergraduates currently enrolled in any recognized institutions of higher learning in Malaysia. Among others, the aim of this competition is to engage with future leaders of the country into thinking about the current state of corporate governance in Malaysia and what role these future leaders can play to enhance it. I hope UiTM undergraduate students can participate in the competition....

ARI Welcomes Prof Behnaz

ARI has appointed Prof Behnaz from the United States of America as a visiting professor and she will be spending time at our university for slightly more than two weeks effective 5th August 2010. Whilst she is here, she has been tasked to facilitate the conversion of students thesis into journal articles which could be published in indexed international journals. Currently, Prof Behnaz is also a member of several research projects with ARI researchers. ARI is also encouraging ARI members to initiate joint authorship with Prof Behnaz. A talk of publishing will also be organized for staff and student researchers. Prof Rashidah will act as a liasson officer for Prof Behnaz's visit....

Islamic Finance Industry - Global Prospect

It was indeed interesting to listen to the talk on Islamic Finance Industry given by visiting professor Dr Humayoun Dar, from the University of Labourough, United Kingdom. Whilst the Islamic finance is currently growing to an impressive USD3trillion industry, the size is still small compared to the contributions of conventional financial system at USD100 trillion. There's still a lot to be done by industry players to make Islamic Financial institutions an alternative mechanism to build business transactions globally. Prof Humayoun posits that the Islamic finance industry must also focus among others, on eradicating poverty of ummah, commiting to community development and social responsibility... Prof Dar is in the middle, holding the bag.

Plagarism

I personally applaud the stance taken by the university to heavily punish plagarism offenders. As researchers, we are encouraged to cite the work of others. This is particularly important so that we can add value to existing body of knowledge.
Effective this semester, all thesis, project papers, research articles and research monographs will go through the "turnitin" plgarism software. Researchers and students are to take note that all write ups that do not "get through" the plagarism test will be returned. Surely this will delay your submission process. For students, this might delay your graduation date. Think about it...

Formation of GLCRC Approved....

Today ARI and the Faculty of Accountancy submitted a joint-working paper to form another research centre within ARI Framework. The formation of the Government-Linked Companies Research Centre (GLCRC)has been approved today by the University's Executive Committee Meeting (comprising the VC, 4 DVCs, Bursar, Registrar and the Head Librarian). In the running of GLCRC, ARI hopes to collaborate with two GLC-related entities. Meetings and discussions are still under way before a formal decision could be made. In the meantime, GLCRC will kickstart its research activities through existing FRGS and ARI HICoE fundings. Dr Azmi Abd Hamid will lead GLCRC. With this latest edition, ARI now has seven research centres namely GLCRC, CIMA-UiTM Management Accounting Research Centre (AMARC), UiTM-MICG Corporate Governance Research Centre (CGRC), UiTM-ACCA Financial Reporting Research Centre (FRRC), Asia-Pacific Forensic Accounting Research Centre (AFARe), UiTM-ACCA Sustainability Research Centres (APCeS) and UiTM CPA Public Sector Research Centre PSARC). Congratulations...

New Group of Applied Research Students

Today I met another cohort of applied Research students who are mainly from two Master Programs namely Master in Forensic Accounting & Financial Criminology and Master in Corporate Governance. It is always very refreshing to meet up with new group of students. Students are basically to propose an applied research topics that are of their interest. As much as possible, students are encouraged to do a case study of their own organisation. Doing a real life case study related to corporate governance or forensic accounting is certainly very enriching...

AGC Seminar in Forensic Accounting

It was an honour to be invited to speak in a seminar organized by the Attorney General Chambers (AGC). The one-day Forensic Accounting Seminar was held at the newly occupied AGC Office in Putrajaya. I was asked to speak on "The Application of Forensic Accounting in Investigation: Analyzing Financial Statements". In view of the increasing number of financial statement fraud being reported, this initiative is certainly timely and appropriate.
For the future, ARI proposes a more long-term training of AGC's human capital either through CPD or graduate program by research. Knowledge and competency in forensic accounting should be a core requirement for all professionals.

FRGS Grant RM100 million?

In the last cycle of FRGS applications, there were 3,000 applications from both public and private Malaysian universities. I would expect the competition will be stiffer. With RM100 million FRGS grant available for grab, researchers will need to put forward some very fundamental research topics that will creat value to the country. As in the past, we are looking for research topics that adopt new methodology, extended an existing model/theory, produce results that enhance quality of life or improve exiting laws and policies.....

Congratulations Saeid Homayoun

Congratulations to Mr Saeid, our international student from Iran who had recently completed his Master of Accountancy program (by research) under the ever-abled supervision of Prof Dr Rashidah Abdul Rahman, ARI's Deputy Director. His perseverance is exemplary to other students - language is no barrier if you are willing to work hard. He will be pursuing a PhD program in the area of Islamic financial criminology at ARI soon...

Meeting New Researchers

The FRGS research clinic went well today. Most of those who attended were young researchers who were excited about their first FRGS applications. Dayang Nailul was formerly from UNIMAS and aspires to do research on occupational safety & health in solar energy companies. Though still young and new to UiTM, she has published in at least five refereed international journals. She is currently attached with the faculty of business. Another young researcher, Norzitah is interested to examine shariah-based activities in Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs). Norzitah was formerly from the Islamic International College (a private arm of UIA). Research in shariah-related topic is very much in demand today. I have invited her to become one of ARI associates so that she can use ARI's facilities and resources. In fact ARI had bought a lot of books on Islamic finance. Yusseri is a young lecturer from Sarawak and is interested to introduce new CSR model in green technology companies These young lecturers were very enthusiastic and the university must support them. Good luck and congratulations....

FRGS Research Clinic

I will be conducting a whole day research clinic tomorrow (24th June 2010) to facilitate researchers prepare and submit their fundamental research grant proposals. The venue will be at the office of Research Management Institute (RMI). Please bring your reference materials to the clinic and we will facilitate you step by step - everyone needs to know what aught to be included and avoided in the proposals. See you there...

UiTM Alumni Association Membership Drive

As a director of ARI and an alumnus of UiTM, I have been appointed as one of the committee members of the Alumni Association. Currently the association is going for a membership drive. Those out there who are alumni of Universiti Teknologi MARA, please register yourself. Our ultimate aim is how best we can "pay back" the university. Some of our recent activities have included organizing intellectual discourse, submitting our professional feedback to the New Economic Model and 10th Malaysia Plan, facilitating UiTM in retraining graduates to be "industry-ready", special entrepreneurship program for graduates who are keen to venture into business (a collaboration with MITI & SIRIM). The Alumni association also has in stock souvenir items. KIndly browse Alumni website http://www.uitmalumni.com for details

Research on Government Link Companies

Due to increasing interest towards Malaysia's Government-Linked Companies (GLCs), ARI is planning to establish a new research centre in GLC Research. Dr Azmi Hamid has indicated his interest to lead the centre. As such, ARI invites those interested to become members of this centre to contact me at normah645@salam.uitm.edu.my. Basically, GLCs play a very important role in spearheading competitiveness of Malaysian companies. Currently GLCs contribute towards market capitalization of RM235.5 billion (49 per cent of total capitalization) and employ more than 300,000 people. They also contribute about 17 per cent of the nation’s gross fixed capital formation and account for almost 10 per cent of Gross Domestic Product. ARI will be submitting a total of seven FRGS research proposals in June 2010 to the Ministry of Higher Education.

Research in Terrorist Financing

There's an urgent need for ARI to conduct research on either perceptions or allegations related money laundering and terrorist financing activities by charity associations, non-governmental organisations (NGO) or illegitimate use of financial institutions. ARI will be proposing a collaborative research project with the Royal Malaysian Police and the Central Bank of Malaysia (BNM) soon. During the past weeks, there have been allegations made in the newspapers that some irresponsible individuals or organisations are trying to abuse the financial system of this country....

A Great Three-Day Weekend

We had a three-day research and publication retreat at Bukit Tinggi on 11-13 June 2010. All in all, 37 members attended the meeting cum workshops. ARI had invited some colleagues from the Centre in Islamic Thought and Understanding (CITU) to participate in our retreat. We had a very focused agenda. Our deliverables were set at 30 research proposals in Islamic Financial Criminology; 20 concept papers in Islamic Financial Criminology and 20 journal articles in Financial Criminology. Everyone was divided into groups. At the end of the three-day retreat, we managed to complete 34 research proposals, 43 concept papers and 35 journal articles....

Meeting YaPEIM

YaPEIM stands for "Yayasan Pembangunan Ekonomi Islam Malaysia" or Malaysia Islamic Economic, Development Foundation. Basically, YaPEIM was established in 1976 as a prominent socioeconomic development Institution with the aim of improving the Ummah's standard and quality of living which was in tandem with the aspiration of Malaysia's Vision 2020. It was a privileged getting to meet up with Mr Mohd Yusof Abdul Rahman, the Director of Finance and Investment Division. Through the culture of Amal Jariah (Beneficence) YaPEIM hopes to uplift the Ummah. There's a lot of research potential that ARI and YaPEIM can undertake together...

Six Keys to a Winning Team

As part of the CPA Australia continuing professional development (CPD) program, I attended a course entitled "Six Keys to a Winning Team" by Mr Ian Homer from Action Coach - a business coaching agency.
The concepts are simple, yet very practical. The six keys to a winning team comprise namely (i) strong leadership, (ii) Written "Rules of the game", (iii) Common goal, (iv) Clear action plan, (v) Support risk taking and (vi) 100% involvement. Next move? Just do it....

New Online FGRS Application

To all ARI members: please take note that all submissions for the June 2010 Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) from the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia will be made through online application. Please browse through the Research Management Institute (RMI) homepage for details: http://rmi.uitm.edu.my/

CSSR papers and Counting

To date ARI have submitted six papers to CSSR 2010. By the way, the submission is to be made online using a specified format. We are targetting at least twenty participation with 30-40 papers by the deadline of 30th June 2010. ARI has recorded the following participation from leading authors: Prof Rashidah (1), Prof Normah (2), Assoc Prof Dr Wee Shu Hui (2) and Dr Kalsom (1). I am expecting more papers from other ARI, faculty and postgraduate students members. I saw this proverb by Positive Ideas which is definitely applicable to ARI: Coming tohether is a beginning, Keeping together is progress, Working together is SUCCESS. Let's Go for IT....

Corporate Integrity and Ethics Framework

As a director of ARI, I have been invited by the Malaysian Institute of Integrity (IIM) to lead a research team by academics to develop a Corporate Integrity and Ethics Framework for the country. In view of the numerous corporate scandals nowadays, it is imperative that companies and board of directors of companies should be able to self-assess the level of integrity and ethical values of their own organizations. Our team have reviewed various self-governance instruments currently used by our counterparts globally and we shall be developing suitable tool for Malaysia. If companies proactively take step to self-assess their integrity and ethical values, corrective measures can be taken from time to time...

Showcasing ARI in the Daily Telegraph UK

One international agency, PM Communication Ltd, a UK-based company is working closely with the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) to publish a special write up about Malaysia. The focus is specifically on the Higher Education Sector. PM Communication Ltd is one of the agents working with the Daily Telegraph newspaper in the United Kingdom. Included in the write up will be the six HICoES under the Ministry of Higher Education. The team from PM Communication came to interview ARI members recently.

ARI Members

ARI is inviting researchers who are keen to become our research fellows or research associates to submit your letter of intent to me. Currently we are looking for new researchers whose interest and expertise are in the areas of Islamic Finance, Sha'riah, law (penal code and cybernatic), IT system, Financial criminology, Zakat, Waqf, Islamic Banking, Muamalat and applied accounting. Interested researchers please email me at normah645@salam.uitm.edu.my

Congratulations Applied Researchers

As per the deadline yesterday, I have received eleven research monographs from the following researchers: Azizul, Badrul Hisham, Haslinda, Hazwani, Juita, Juliana, Mohd Nizar, Mohd Suhaimi, Rohin, Siti Nor'aina and Suzie. Congratulations for your effort and most importantly for "making it happened". Together, everyone achieves more....

Call for Papers in Islamic Financial Criminology

ARI wishes to invite researchers and authors to submit concept or empirical papers in "Islamic Financial Criminology" for possible special issue publication of our journal , Malaysian Accounting Review. The papers should be about 10-15 pages focussing on issues or prospects related to Islamic Finance and Financial Criminology. All submissions can be sent directly to me at normah645@salam.uitm.edu.my.

A Special Invitation to JAKIM's Muzakarah

I wish to thank the management of JAKIM for a personal invitation given to me and ARI's two Phd researchers to attend a special Muzakarah session on Shariah Advisory Council for Islamic Institutions in Malaysia on 31 May 2010. We hope to make full use of the invitation to network with members of the Shariah Advisory Council. This is especially useful for us to learn more about the Islamic Finance framework in our forthcoming research in Islamic Financial Criminology.

Visit to CCM

Prof Dr Rozainun and her team from the Asia-Pacific Forensic Accounting Research Centre (AFARe) will be organizing their international annual conference on 14-15 December 2010. This year's conference will have a special track on Islamic Financial Criminology. Some national and international speakers have indicated their commitment to participate in the event. The Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) through its CEO Dato' Azmi Ariffin has offered AFARe the CCM auditorium as possible venue for the forthcoming conference. The venue is indeed strategically located. Today, the team went to visit the said location and they were indeed very impressed...

Thank You Nigel

I wish to thank Mr Nigel Iyer for sending me a complimentary copy of his recent book titled: A Short Guide to Fraud Risk - Fraud Resistance and Detection. He co-authored the book with Martin Samociuk. This just recently released book is one of "the must have" items. I met Nigel at a Fraud and Corruption Summit in London - he was one of the speakers at the summit. Nigel has agreed to be one of the speakers at our forthcoming Financial Criminology Conference this December in Kuala Lumpur.

Celebrating Winners.

Congratulations to all ARI members who received their scrolls at the convocation ceremony today. It was a great feeling to see how our graduates grew and developed over the years.
Our Master in Forensic Accounting and Financial Criminology graduates did us proud as this was the largest number we have produced in a cohort since the program was introduced in 2006. Ain, Suhani, Rosdi, Putri, Yazid, Marini, Nisha, Yazid, Syah, Nurahim, Shahrul, Azura, Huda, Ismayanti, Ezadee, Fazlysham, Salihuddin, Amirudin, Khairul, Juhana. I am so proud of you all....

Congratulations New Docs...

ARI wishes to congratulate two of our researchers who have been recently awarded their PhD degree. Dr Siti Noor Hayati Mohamed Zawawi completed a thesis in forensic accounting entitled "Antecedent of Behavioural Intention for Fraudulent Financial Reporting: Malaysian Evidence" from Universiti Teknologi MARA. Dr Norli Ali wrote a thesis in Financial Economics titled "Stock Overreaction & Stock Price Bubbles: Evidence From Malaysia" from Universiti Putra Malaysia. Congratulations

Renewed Vision for ARI

There certainly is a need to focus on developing preventive and deterrence strategies on fraud, particularly on financial criminology in Malaysia. There is currently a vacuum in this area of expertise. After attending the Fraud & Corruption Summit 2010, I really see how ARI can play a significant role in promoting expertise and training on financial criminology. There is a need for an inbtegrated approach where ARI can work closely with MACC, PDRM, Malaysian Institute of Integrity, Securities Commission, JAKIM, Bank Negara Malaysia, Auditor/Accountant General Office etc.

Meeting Andrew Jennings the Reporter

Andrew Jennings is an investigative reporter, writer and documentary filmmaker. He is best known for his work concerning corruption in sports organizations and the politics of international sports, particularly within FIFA and the International Olympic Committee.
The chance to meet him at the Fraud and Corruption Summit 2010 was a real priviledge for me. A very brave no-nonsense person. He was one of the speakers at the Summit - deliberating details of his investigation about corruption at FIFA. He has written several books which include: Scotland Yard's Cocaine Connection (1989), The Lords of the Rings (1992, 1996), The Great Olympic Swindle,(2000) and FOUL! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote-Rigging and Ticket Scandals, (2006). Combatting fraud is not easy, one lesson I learned from him is the need to be brave and persistence; know and get your fact and ask lots of questions. Andrew Jennings is the one on the right...

Training in Criminology

I am currently attending the Fraud and Corruption Summit 2010 in London. It’s a three day training session where participants learn from experts on strategies for fraud prevention, detection, deterrence and investigation strategies. For me, it has been a great opportunity to network with other global researchers. From the first day session itself, I have identified several feasible research topics on financial criminology that could be undertaken by our researchers: Ethical Risk Assessment, Global Ethics and Integrity Benchmark, Effective Integrity Assessment, Survey on Fraud Victims of their Experience and Impact, Fraud and Economic Impact Assessment, Procurement Fraud in the Public Sector, Tax Fraud Assessment etc.

Trip to Manchester

Things have changed so much in Manchester compared to how it was 20 years ago when I enrolled as a PhD student at the end of 1989.More buildings are being built and the transportation services have improved many folds. A visit to my alma mater Manchester Metropolitan University Business School brought fond memories. The Business school has grown so much and I was told by my former supervisor Graham Holt that the Business School will soon move to a another bigger location at the All Saint campus. The universy status bestowed upon them in 1992 has certainly brought new research culture. There are now so many renowned professors being appointed at the business school. My visit and discussions with Graham Holt have resulted in potential collaboration between MMU and UiTM.

Visit to Teesside's CFI

University of Teesside has recently won a double accolade as "University of the Year" and "Outstanding Employer Engagement Initiative" in the Times Higher Education awards.
One of the most outstanding programs offered at the university is its Crime, Forensic and Policing. The University offers a wide range of courses in crime, forensic investigation – and policing both nationally and internationally. ARI's own Forensic Accounting Research Centre is a collaboration with Teesside University. As opportunity ensues, one of the programs arranged during my UK visit was to meet up with up with researchers at Teesside - to discuss possible collaborative research in financial criminology.

Corporate Integrity System Roundtable

The Malaysian Institute of Integrity (MII) initiated a rountable meeting today with various organisations to discuss the development of Corporate Integrity Syatem (CIS)Framework for the country.
Participating organisations include among others the Securities Commissions (SC), Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA), Bursa Malaysia, Minority Shareholders Watchdog Group (MSWG), Malaysian Institute of Corporate Governance (MICG), Tran sparency International (TI), Malaysian Productivity Corporation (MPC), Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC), CIDB, SUHAKAM, UiTM, Nottingham University Business School (NUBS). The Committee is given two years to realize the CIS framework. As a director of ARI, I have been assigned to undertake research related to the development of CIS among public listed companies in Malaysia

We Will Miss You Jane

Associate Professor Jane Lazar has written many books on Company Accounts, Financial Reporting, Financial Statement Analysis and conducted various research on IFRS. She is retiring and plans to spend more time with her family. To many of us at ARI, she was once our own lecturer, then a colleague. But she is best noted as a mentor to us. We wish you happiness and God bless you always.....

Collaborative Professional Program in Taxation

Representatives from the Faculty of Accountancy and the Malaysian Institute of Taxation (MIT) had recently met to discuss possible professional collaboration in taxation.
The enhancement program would require final year Bachelor of Accountancy students to take additional taxation courses that would allow them to become tax consultants.

Forensic Laboratory at ARI

As a MOHE Centre of Excellence, ARI's request to set up a forensic lab has been recently approved. ARI hopes to purchase equipment such as polygraph machines, audit trail analyzer, document identifier and finger print identifier to equip the lab. I will be visiting the forensic laboratory at Teesside University in the United Kingdom to benchmark. Teesside's Forensic Crime Institute (FCI) is globally well knowned and its laboratories are fully accredited to allow FCI to provide forensic training to various regulatory and enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom.

Research on Financial Criminology

I was reading the whole week's newspapers to examine types of financial criminology that can be further researched (and to find ways to mitigate them in the future). Some interesting topics include the following: Illegal land title transfer scheme involving individuals from a state Land Registrar; Thieves siphoning million of ringgit after they cunningly steal ATM cards and PIN from unsuspecting bank customers; Online Credit card scam lands man in Aussie jail; Corruption by anti-corruption officer; About RM1 million was lost in online bank fraud between January and June 2009; The Singapore International Arbitration Centre has ruled in favour of Astro to recover RM782 million from the Lippo Group over a failed Indonesian pay-TV venture....and that's not all. You can find them in the news everyday.

Wecome back Dr Halil Paino

ARI wishes to welcome back Dr Halil Paino who has successfully completed his PhD program at the Edith Cowan University in Perth Australia under the supervision of Prof Malcom Smith. His thesis entitled "Impairment of Audit Quality: An Investigation of factors Leading to Dysfunctional Audit Behaviour" has received several commendable award. Congratulations. Dr Halil has indicated his interest to work closely with ARI as a research fellow.

Islamic Financial News Subscription

The university has recently subscribed to the online database Islamic Financial News (IFN) For ARI members, please browse through the website at http://www.islamicfinancenews.com.ezaccess.library.uitm.edu.my/. There's a lot of training programs in Islamic Finance being conducted both locally and in other parts of the globe. As our niche research area is in Islamic Financial Criminology, ARI encourages all members to be knowledgeable and competent in this topic. Please attend relevant courses to upgrade your expertise...

Jane Lazar

She was my lecturer and now a colleague. Associate Professor Jane Lazar will be finishing her contract with the university at the end of next month. Jane was an active author and she has written numerous books on financial reporting, accounting and taxation. We will certainly miss her. ARI hopes that she will continue to help the institute with her editing job, which she has been doing most brilliantly since many years ago. She is throwing us lunch on 5th March....God bless you always

E-Bulletin & Personal websites

In its efforts towards a paperless environment, ARI organised a workshop for all members on the development of e-bulletin. The workshop was conducted by an officer from the university's IT resource centre (PSMB).
Participants were also exposed to the need for ARI members to create their personal academic website. This could facilitate teaching and learning, where as lecturers they can upload their lecture notes and students can upload their assignment through the webs. As researchers, they can post all their research and publication details on the website as well.

Behavioural Study on Financial Pepetrators

As ARI is focussing on financial criminology, I wish to invite interested researchers to submit research proposals that study behaviours of fraudsters. This will include face to face interviews and observations of fraudsters (or convicted fraudsters) who are serving their sentences. Basically we want to know why they did it and how they plan their actions. Kindly forward your proposals to me at normah645@salam.uitm.edu.my

KPI Measurement through iPMO

During his recent briefing to all students and staff, the newly appointed Vice Chancelor of UiTM, Dato' Prof Ir Dr Sahol Hamid indicated his plan to use the iPMO tool to evaluate the performance of deans and other heads of departments.
I was looking for details of what iPMO constitutes and found this link: http://pps.uitm.edu.my/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=107&Itemid=82. Basically iPMO is premised on eight interrelated dimensions namely (1) Quality Management (2) Knowledge Management (3)Stakeholder Management (4) Scope Management (5)Risk & Issues Management (6)Schedule Management (7) resource Management and (8) Financial Management. I suppose there will be briefing on this iPMO implementation. I am a great believer in the concept "What gets measured gets done"...

ARI's Niche Research Area

As one of the Ministry of Higher Education's centres of excellence or aptly called MOHE HiCoE, ARI's research focus will be in the area of financial criminology. As such, all ARI's fundamental research projects will include the following (additional) requirements:
1. ARI members to assume the role of principal investigators
2. Other research team members will include at least one person from the industry/professional bodies from Malaysia and another one from other Malaysian universities
3. At least one renowned international member from foreign universities
4. Expected two publications in indexed journals for each research project

In today's monthly meeting with members, ARI has identified some research titles to be conducted for the years 2010-2012.

ISIEA 2010

The 2010 IEEE Symposium on Industrial Electronics and Applications (ISIEA 2010), an international conference will be held in Penang on 3-6 October 2010. The conference is SCOPUS- and ISI Thomson-Indexed. It is great opportunity for ARI members to participate as a special track for business management has been allocated. Two ARI members, Prof Dr Rozainun and myself have been appointed as committee members of the international symposium. The deadline for abstract submission is 2nd February 2010. I look forward to seeing a lot of papers from ARI and faculty members...

Corporate Integrity System

The Malaysian Institute of Integrity (IIM) through its private sector director encik Mohd Nizam Mohd Ali proposes an initiative to develop a comprehensive Corporate Integrity System (CIS) for Malaysian corporations.
The CIS is premised on four fundamental concepts namely (1) Ethical leadership; code of conduct & corporate citizenship, (2) Regulatory oversight, civil & criminal liabilities & law enforcement, (3) Compliance systems, whistle blowing, corporate governance, Roles of accountants & auditors adn (4) Investors, public reporting, civil society watchdogs, investigative journalism and consumer campaigns. As a director of ARI, I have appointment as one of the working group members of this initiative.

Research in Financial Criminology

ARI wishes to invite interested researchers to submit fundamental research proposals on financial criminology. All proposals must include collaboration with either the professional bodies, Industry and international university researchers. All applications should be emailed to me at either dr.normah@accountant.com or normah645@salam.uitm.edu.my by 28th Febriary 2010. Prospective master and phd students are also encouraged to apply.

MIMOS Convention & networking

I was invited to MIMOS convention recently and I met a former UiTM-Cardiff MBA student Zurina. I was teaching the management accounting course for that proagram. Currently Zurina is attached with MIMOS. Zurina and her colleague Dr Haniza are researchers speacialising in "Measurement & Psychometrics". ARI can now network with these researchers and they should be able to facilitate us with our research measurement. They have sort of agree for a possible research collaboration. Thanks Zurina

Marvelous Tampin

The 1/2010 FRGS research proposals evaluation meeting was held recently at the A farmosa Resorts from 18/1/10 to 22/1/10. Apart from serious evaluation, I had the opportunity to visit a nearby town which is about four kilometers from the hotel. The Tampin town has some very interesting characteristics. Though small, it has what it takes to sustain its existence for a long time. One of the most prominent characteristics is its ability to portray itslef as a textile/garment town. The textiles and garments are mostly sold at wholesale prices. I am particularly amazed by the many Kampuchean-originated entrepreneurs who provides good and efficient tailoring services for tourist (you can get your garment ready within two days!). Another interesting characteristic is the avialbility of many restaurants that sell authentic Negeri Sembilan delicacies - I had sambal tempoyak daun kayu. As researchers, it would be interesting to study how Tampin survives the mushrooming of hypermarkets and supermarkets....

Fancy That....

Recently I had the opportunity to visit a full board school in Seremban, the Sekolah Datuk Abdul Razak (SDAR). The school has been named as one of the twenty top schools in the country. It is interesting to research on how top schools like SDAR are able to produce good and talented individuals. Our very on Assistant Vice Chancelor Prof Abu Bakar Majeed was a SDARian and I saw this listing proudly showcased by the school. Prof Bakar was the school's best student in 1977. Congratulations Prof Bakar...

My Favorite Innovators...

There are some very good inventors at the recent IID 2010. However they lost simply because there's no publication or any form of intellectual property protection either through copyright, trademarks or patents. My choice is of course confined to the products that I have personally reviewed. The first one is the development of a template to analyse previous studies or literature review in a research. The second one is on e-bulletin, where books or annual reports are just electronically presented.
Third is the product "teaching accounding made simple". I have shown the literature review template in my previous entry. I am showing the other two in this entry.

Learning How to Do Literature Review?

I have been appointed to be one of the judges for UiTM's Invention, Innovation and Design (IID 2010) exhibition held on 12-14 January 2010. Today, I met one of the exhibitor, Dr Teoh from the faculty of Education who has invented a template for researchers to do their literature review analysis. I am basically impressed by her invention. Dr Teoh has co-written a book with another researcher, Dr Kor from the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Computer Sciences and Quantitative Analysis, titled From Literature Review to Developing Conceptual Framework for Journal Writing. It is highly recommended that researchers read the book. ARI is buying the book from her.