Monday, August 30, 2010

Methodologies in Assessing Forensic Accounting Cases

The Master in Forensic Accounting & Financial Criminology students presented their practical assignment on methodologies that can be used in forensic accounting or financial criminology investigations.
Some of the techniques being presented and found to be useful and relevant for data gathering and analysis include among others the following:
* Data Mining
* Benford Law
* Financial Statement Analysis
* Relative Size Factor
* Z-Scores
* Networth Analusis
* Bank Deposit Analysis
* Beneish method
* Computer Assisted Auditing Tool (CAAT)
* Direct and Inditect Method

Sunday, August 29, 2010

New Applied Research Titles

The third cohort of Applied Research students are currently finalising their research findings and are in the process of submitting their research monograph which will be on 9th Actober 2010. Applied research is a course where students preferably choose their own organisation (own place of employment)and do a case study on. From the forensic view point, students are expected to identify a specific issue or reserch problem and go on to collect data so that the prob;em could be resolved. Some of the topics that the students have chosen include the following:
1) Fraud Mitigation Exercise of a Local Bank - An Evaluation and Analysis of Non-Performing Loan
2) Split Procurement to Avoid the Tender Procedure in Malaysian Government Agencies
3) A Taxpayer Analysis of Under-declared taxes
4) Risk-Based Audit of a Local Port
5) Corporate Disclosure: A Reality Check on a Listed Holdings Berhad
6) The Employees’ Perceptions on the Effectiveness of Fraud Detection System: Case of A Malaysian Bank
7) Fraud Awareness Program of an Insurance Company
8) Fraud Deviant Behaviour of Fraudsters: A Case Study of a Government Agency
9) Perception of Public Sector Auditors on Fraud Detection Responsibility
10) Assessment of GLC Transformation Program: A Midterm Review
11) Occupational Fraud and Whistleblowing Policy: A Case Study of a Car Manufacturing Company
12) Skills and Competencies of Accountant to Detect Fraud: A Case Study On Accountant General Department
13) Non-Performing Loan: Evidences from Post Morterm Review Reports

Friday, August 27, 2010

Prof Shidah's Radio Interview with BFM

In conjuction with the publication of her new work on corporate governance, Prof Rashidah Abdul Rahman, ARI's deputy director has been invited recently by the BFM radio for a special interview with the radio station.
BFM radio specializes in three very important aspects of today's bradcasting world: Business, Football and Music. Certainly her interview is related to the "Business" segment of the Radio. Prof Rashidah, co-author the book with associate professor Rizal from the University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus. Congratulations...

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Two ARI Conferences in December

ARI will be co-organising two conferences in December 2010. The first one is The International Accounting & Finance Conference UiTM Sabah 2010 to be held on 8-9 December 2010. Themed Governance and Liberalization of Private and Public Sector: Issues and Challenges, the venue of the conference will be at the Federal Government Complex, Kota Kinabalu. The keynote speaker will be prof Malcom Smith from Edith Cowan University, Australia. Selected papers from this conference will be considered for publication in ARI's three journals namely Malaysian Accounting Review, Asia-Pacific Management Accounting Journal and Journal of Financial Reporting & Accounting. The second conference is the International Conference on Financial Criminology which will be held on 14-15 December 2010. Themed Financial Criminology Prevention from the Islamic Perspective, the venue of the conference will be at the CCM Auditorium in Kuala Lumpur Sentral. Selected papers will be published in the Malaysian Accounting Review special issue in December.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Two International Research Grants....

ARI wishes to congratulate Dato' Professor Dr Mustafa Mohd Zin and his team from the Asia-Pacific Centre of Sustainability (APCeS - one of the seven research centres under ARI) for securing two international research grants. The first research grant is from the Australian-Malaysian Institute, University of Griffith, Australia to finance a collaborative research project entitled "Improving CSR Standards in the Oil & Gas Industry: A Comparison of Malaysia and Australia. The amount of research grant is AUD21,725.00. The second grant, amounting 100 million Rupiah is from the Indonesian Center for Social & Environmental Accounting Research & Development (ICSEARD) to finance a research entitled "The Stages of CSR Development between Developing Countries (Malaysia & Indonesia) and a Developed Country (United Kingdom). The collaborative research is between ICSEARD (Indonesia), APCeS (Malaysia) and Centre for Research in Organisational Governance (CROG - UK). Congratulations

Monday, August 23, 2010

Students Forum on AMLA

The Master in Forensic Accounting & Financial Criminology students organised a student Forum to discuss a topic entitled "Get Rich Quick Scheme: Lessons Learned". In many cases, companies involved in such illegal deposit taking schemes are not registered with either the Central Bank of Malaysia (BNM) or the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM), hence they could not be prosecuted for violating these respective Acts. Usually cases involving Get Rich Quick Scheme is aptly considered under the Anti Money Laundering and Anti Terrorism Financing Act (AMLATFA 2001). The four students: Hafiz was representing the banking institutions; Faizah was representing the government Sector; Sharina was representing the professionals group and Amran was representing the private sector/industry. The forum was moderated by Sulie. The students were engaged in some very useful discussions on the topic. A reminder to all: if you are being offered some unreasonable return within a short period of time without having to consider risk, you are involved with this "get Rich Quick Scheme" and your case can be considered under AMLATFA. AMLATFA jurisdiction is very severe, charges are based on transaction... beware.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Talk by an Anti-Money Laundering Specialist

ARI wishes to thank Mr Aaron Lau from ATLAU Management Service for giving a very interesting talk entitled "Anti-Money Laundering and Anti Terrorism Financing Act: Trade-Based Money laundering & Emerging Trends". The talk was specifically arranged for our Master students who are taking the Investigative Techniques course. Mr Aaron is one of the few Malaysians who have obtained the USA-based certificate Anti-Money laundering Specialist (ACAMS) in this country. Certainly his presence and talk were able to provide practical inputs to the Master students. At the end of this course all students will be presenting their own "investigation cases" at the university's moot court. They will need to choose a real-life financial criminology case and they would need to use effective investigation techniques in order to enable them to "prosecute" the pepetrators.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Turnitin: Anti-Plagarism Software

Many researchers and supervisors attended a half-day workshop to learn details on how to use and administer the anti-plagarism software: Turnitin. Effective this semester, all thesis, research monographs, journal articles and other mode of publication will have to go through a thorough screening of this software. It is interesting to note how the software is able to detect minute details on the sources (including website addresses) from where the "plagarized materials" have been taken.
Students and staff, beware that your works could be blacklisted by publishers if any attempt is made to plagarize other people's work without due referencing. ARI's advice: The impact of plagarism will be very costly - DO NOT EVEN ATTEMPT IT. Seen here our facilitator, Dr Amrizah..

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Strategic Alliance with Top Notch Research Centres

All ARI members are encouraged to initiate strategic alliances with top notch research centres globally. Members should identify suitable research partners from amongst these centres. The vice chancellor has recently announced a specific "Vice Chancellor Special Projects (VCSP)" under the name "Strategic Alliances with Top Notch Research Centres & Top Notch Researchers". The director of ARI, Prof Dr Normah Omar has been appointed as the project manager of this VCSP program. ARI should lead this initiative by planning several strategic alliances. To date, the Financial Reporting Research Centre researchers have informed ARI that they will be collaborating with the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism
Research, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Similarly, the CIMA-UiTM Management Accounting Research Centre will be conducting collaborative international research with the National Taiwan University. ARI hopes to see more research collaborations from other research centres in 2011 & 2012.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Research & Seminar Collaborations with the FIU

Yesterday, a group of ARI researchers paid a visit to the Financial Inteeligence Unit (FIU), Bank Negara Malaysia to discuss possible research and seminar collaborations in the areas of financial criminology and anti money laundering. Through the FIU, the Central Bank of Malaysia has developed one of the best anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing (AML/CTF)regime in this region. The prospect of collaborations certainly looks good. ARI is also inviting other international partners to participate in our research projects.

The Vice Chancellor Award Assessment

The Faculty of Accountancy and ARI have been shortlisted for 2010's Vice Chancellor Award.
The vice chancellor award is an annual event. This is in fact out tenth participation in the competition. We have also been shortlisted ten times including this year's. We have won the award in various categories for the past seven years. Today, the assessors came to validate our 2010 submission and we hope to be tenth time lucky this year....

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Talk on AMLATFA

ARI wishes to thank Inspector Mohd Noor Firdaus from the AMLA unit, Royal Malaysia Police for untiringly accepting our invitation to talk to our Master in Forensic Accounting & Financial Criminology on a topic "Anti Money Laundering & Terrorist Financing - Perspective of the Law Enforcer". Through his experience as an investigating officer (IO) of several money laundering cases in Malaysia, he was able to relate to the students on the aspects of investigation protocol and the importantce of getting the right evidences. Thanks again Firdaus..

Monday, August 9, 2010

Welcome Prof Behnaz

All ARI members wish to welcome our distinguished visiting professor, Prof Dr Behnaz from Marymount University USA. Prof Behnaz will be attached at ARI during the periods of 6th August to 21st August.
The three main agendas of her visit is firstly to participate in collaborative research with ARI members; secondly to conduct research publication meetings/workshops with lecturers and post graduate students and thirdly to edit and co-author journal articles with students and staff. Prof Behnaz brought along her research assistant, Ms MJ (in white blouse) who assists her with her research and publication projects. The two ladies are seen here with Prof Dr Rashidah

Congratulations SYCo

ARI wishes to congratulate our student team - Student Youth Community (SYCo) - who was one of the top five finalists of the Money Tree's YES Challange 2010. SYCo is a web portal that solves the communication breakdown among students in university. In essence, SYCo centralizes all information from every faculty dy digitalizing the traditional notice board which can be updated frequently and accessed easily through the web portal and LCD screens within the faculty premises. SYCo was represented by four passionate and highly ambitious students from the faculty of accountancy: Zharif Sarif, Abu Yasir, Aliff and Amru. Congratulations...

Saturday, August 7, 2010

ARI Welcomes New Members

Congratulations to ARI new research fellows: (1)Dr Siti Khadijah, (2) Associate Prof Dr Ezani, (3) Associate Prof Dr Pok Wee Ching and (4) Dr Hilwani Hariri. Our new Associate fellows are: (1) Associate Prof Dr Rohana Othman, (2) Dr Nawal Kasim, (3) Dr Norli Ali, (4) Dr Intan Salwani. ARI's monthly meeting yesterday saw an "almost" full board attendance. Thank you. ARI also wish to welcome on board Dr Azmi Abdul Hamid, head of the newly formed Government-Linked Companies Research Centre (GLCRC). As such, there are currently seven research centres within ARI's framework....

Friday, August 6, 2010

Congratulations Dr Intan Salwani

ARI wishes to congratulate Dr Intan Salwani Mohammed for her success in getting her PhD qualification in Accounting Information System from the Multimedia University Cyberjaya. Dr Intan is currently one of ARI's associate fellows and she is also the head of the Accounting Information System (AIS) special interest group. Dr Intan is an exemplary young researcher who is very passionate with her work. To date she has written a lot of articles which are published in indexed journals; books; chapters in book. She has also developed many innovative products some of which are already being utilised successfully by the SMEs. Congratulations Dr Intan....

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Shariah Audit for Islamic Financial Institutions

In 2010, the Islamic Finance is a three Trillion USD Industry and is still growing. For the accounting profession, shari'ah audit is a competency that every UiTM accounting graduate should be equipped with. As cited by Syed Alwi in his mini guide titled Shari'ah Audit for Islamic Financial Institutions, Shariah Audit shares similar function as auditing but focuses on the compliance of Islamic financial institutions ro Shari'ah precepts and requirements. Shariah auditing contributes towards managing the risks of the IFIs, contributes to the growth of the industry and the economy by providing adequate disclosure for the stakeholders to make informed decidions. AAOIFI is working towards developing a new professional qualification: Certified Islamic Professional Accountants.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Accounting for Islamic Financial Products

One of the issues raised during the recent KLIFF 2010 (3-4 August 2010) held at Nikko Hotel Kuala Lumpur was the need to strengthen the accounting/financial reporting harmonisation by Islamic financial institutions globally. Participants were reminded of the Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions' (AAOIFI)primary objectives are: firstly to develop standards on accounting and auditing, ethics and governance and disseminate them to their target market. Secondly to bring the industry towards greater harmonization of the policies and procedures of Islamic banks within local jurisdictions and accross nations. Thirdly to provide greater consistency in the shari'ah fatwas of the various shari'ah supervisory boards, hence adding development of shari'ah standards as another key activity within their roster and fourthly to address the human capital strain faced by the industry. This is achieved by providing professional qualification courses to the industry
(Note: These objectives were extracted from CERT's Mini Guide Book written by Syed Alwi Mohamed Sultan. In a nutshell, there remains a gap to be filled by special-trained accountants in the area of Accounting for Islamic Financial Products....

Muzakarah of the Shariah Advisory Council

Today, a few ARI members were invited to attend the 5th annual Muzakarah of the Shariah Advisory Council of Islamic Financial Institutions in Malaysia. At the Muzakarah meeting, panelists are invited to present papers related to pertinent issues often faced by Islamic Financial Institutions. It is at the Muzakarah meetings that practitioners, academia and shariah experts get together to discuss and resolve the issues together. The Shariah Advisory Council and the Muzakarah are mechanisms that provide additional governance within the Islamic Financial institution framework...

Monday, August 2, 2010

Talk on AML/CFT

ARI wishes to thank Mr Mohd Fuad Arshad, a Bank Negara Officer attached with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) for sharing information regarding Anti-Money Laundering & Counter Terrorist Financing (AML/CFT) framework with the UiTM's Master in Forensic Accounting & Financial Criminology students today. The talk was indeed very useful for the students who are currently enrolled for the course AFC713 -FINANCIAL CRIMINOLOGY & MONEY LAUNDERING. Every semester, we invite practitioners to give talks to the students. This is part and parcel of giving practical exposure on the subject matter to them.
Mr Fuad discussed the historical background and the implication of the Anti Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act (AMLATFA) to financial criminology in Malaysia and globally...