Internal audit effectiveness in zakat institution from perspective of auditee / Noraini Shamsuddin ... [et al.]

Internal audit function (IAF) is one of the most important meanings for management to confirm and verify the compliance of administrative units in the financial and administrative policies, legislations, financials and administrative systems as well as the adoption of public policies. IAF also helps in running an organization more efficiently and effectively to increase stakeholders’ value. Moreover, with growing size and attention given to the zakat institutions in the recent years, it has made an increase importance of IAF. Due to the importance of IAF, this paper aims to identify the perceived effectiveness of internal audit department (IAD) in zakat institutions (ZI) from auditees’ perspective to assist on close cooperation and necessary improvement in the IAF. To develop the understanding of the factors that lead to effectiveness of IAD, this paper used qualitative method which is semi-structured interview auditees from four selected ZIs in Malaysia. Each ZIs was represented by two auditees from two different department. There are two factors explored, namely organizational status and competency of IAD. The findings show that both factors are important to achieve the effectiveness of IAF. Additionally, most of the auditees (ZI1, ZI2 and ZI3) agreed that management support are the main factors affecting the IAD effectiveness. Meanwhile, ZI4 perceived that training is the main factor contributing to the same effectiveness. It is hoped that the findings are able to increase the awareness among ZI’s auditors and management to improve the IAD effectiveness in the future

WAR 39 ETHICS AND ACCOUNTING EDUCATION: FEW RELEVANT ISSUES

ABSTRACT The demand for accounting graduates to fulfill the corporate needs is increasing from day to day. Education is a platform to prepare them to face challenging roles of the profession. There were various ethical cases involve accounting and accounting-based professionals. It is believed that most accounting corporate scandals and crisis happened due to lack of ethical values exercised by accounting talents in carrying their duties and responsibilities. This study empirically discusses the findings of related literatures on ethics and accounting education

Empowering Whistleblowing Policy within Public Listed Companies: Current Practice in Malaysia

Whistleblowing is an act of disclosing any unethical or questionable act within an organization by disclosing them to individuals, the public or authorities that could influence the wrongdoing. It became an important part of the corporate governance process as such action would benefit society and the organization. With the increase in whistleblowing cases involving publicly listed companies (PLCs) by the mass media in Malaysia, there is a dearth of information on to what extent these PLCs manage whistleblowing matters. As a general practice, albeit not compulsory, many publicly listed companies disclose whistleblowing statements in their annual report. As this aspect of corporate governance for the employees is still unexplored, this study purports to explore the form of disclosure on whistleblowing policy by publicly listed companies in Malaysia for the financial year ending 2021.  This study is a content analysis of 918 annual reports of companies listed in Malaysia.  The findings reveal that most of the companies disclosed matters relating to whistleblowing policies in their Statement of Corporate Governance section, established whistleblowing policies, and mentioned the importance of whistleblowing activities within sections in their annual reports. This study focuses on companies’ annual reports. Future studies could be conducted to assess whistleblowing disclosure in other mediums such as the official websites of the companies. The study explored the aspect of corporate governance for the employee as practiced within publicly listed companies in Malaysia. The findings revealed the companies’ best practices for promoting transparency and accountability within organizations

Evaluating Audit Oversight Board’s Regulatory Impact: Analysis of Sanctions Imposed on Malaysian Audit Firms

This study analyzes the 12-year trend of cases involving auditor wrongdoing as disclosed on the Audit Oversight Board (AOB) Malaysia's website from 2012 to 2023. Utilizing content analysis, the research examines the nature, frequency, and severity of penalties or sanctions imposed on audit firms for various offenses. Findings indicate a dynamic pattern of regulatory actions, reflecting Malaysia's evolving landscape of audit quality and regulatory oversight. It was revealed that a total of 56 breaches of the Securities Commission Act 1993 involving 30 audit firms were reported and disclosed by the Audit Oversight Board over the period from 2012 to 2023.  The findings revealed that most misconduct cases relate to the failure of audit firms to comply with the requirements of International Auditing Standards, International Standard on Quality Control and Malaysian Institute of Accountant By-Laws. There has been a notable decrease in cases involving auditors over the past six years. This could also indicate the dedication of the AOB to monitoring auditors' conduct to prevent their involvement in malpractice. This study contributes to the understanding of audit regulation effectiveness and the behavioral patterns of auditors in response to regulatory scrutiny

Failure rate among the students of Universiti Islam Selangor: the case of Faculty of Management and Muamalah

Education plays a vital role in human capital development. Issues on failure rate among the university students became a serious concern of Higher Learning Institutions (HLIs). This study presented the result of a recent analysis of the Selangor Islamic University by identifying factors of failures among the students of the Faculty of Management and Muamalah. This paper analyzes a specific case of university student failure rate in the Department of Accounting and Finance, Department of Economics and Management and Department of English Studies and Communication. Data was collected by using the overall results of subject for session I 2022/2023. The finding indicates that students’ failure is a complex phenomenon that depends on various factors such as; lack of discipline, low commitment and bad performance during the final examinations. Previous results of last academic session showed that the students are more likely to fail their subjects because of their low commitment during the class session. It is found that more than 10% failure rate were recorded especially for calculation subjects. Furthermore, it is found that the failure rate of the Diploma students has different causes as compared to the first-degree level students. The main causes of failure among students are: internal factors (attitude, commitment, lack of disciplines) and external factors (lecturer’s teaching approach and pedagogical)

Managing and Reporting of Shari’ah Non-Compliant Income in Malaysian Islamic Banks: A Methodology Perspectives

Shari’ah Compliance and Governance Framework is essential to guide the banks on the regulatory requirement as it supports the growth and development of the Islamic finance industry. Section 28(1) and Section 28(3) of the Islamic Financial Services Act (IFSA) 2013, states that IFI needs to comply with the Shari’ah principles in all of their activities religiously. Managing and reporting Shari’ah Non-Compliance (SNC) for instance, are crucial operational matters to the banks. In most cases, Islamic banks could be exposed to SNC incidents due to Shari’ah non-compliance events (SNCE) or Shari’ah Non-Compliant Income (SNCI). This study will be focusing on SNCI, unblessed income that should be de-recognized from the bank’s income. To investigate the end-to-end process of managing and reporting SNCI in Malaysian Islamic banks, the insight of the key functions, and the Shari’ah scholars were obtained. Besides in-depth interviews, documentation review of relevant policy documents, and content analysis on the annual reports of ten Islamic banks were also performed to fulfill the delineated research objectives. Besides data source and methods triangulation, ‘The Six Phases of Reflexive Thematic Analysis’ was also applied to explore and develop an understanding of patterned meaning across the datasets, eased by Atlas.ti. Finally, a guideline of best practices in managing and reporting the SNCI is proposed to Malaysian Islamic banks.    Keywords: Non-complaint income; financial reporting; disclosure; Islamic banks; triangulation &nbsp