Fraud and prevention mechanism at zakat institution

Zakat is an important agenda in the development of the Muslim economy. In Malaysia, zakat institution (ZI) is responsible for zakat management and administration. Like other business entities, ZIs are exposed to various risks and mismanagement issues. This challenge requires ZI to develop and apply comprehensive methods to reduce the incidence of fraud in the organization and ensure the confidence of zakat payers and beneficiaries of zakat is not affected. As the impact of fraud is severe, it is important for ZI to introduce fraud prevention methods so that the credibility of ZI is always preserved. This article is intended to discuss fraud prevention methods for ZI that is considered as a unique entity in Malaysia. To achieve this goal, several types of fraud and the fraud prevention methods adopted in conventional organizations were identified and evaluated. Since ZI is an Islamic social finance institution, fraud prevention methods are different from other financial institutions. Therefore, this article also proposes a fraud prevention mechanism that fits into the structure and function of ZI as an agent of the economic transformation of the ummah. Finally, this article also identifies areas of research that can be carried out in relation to the issue of forensic accounting and ZI

Bumiputera accounting students' intention of a professional examination applicability of the theory of reasoned action (TRA)

Professional qualification such as Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), Institute of Chartered Secretary and Administration (ICSA), Malaysian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (MICPA) and Certified Practicing Accountants Australia (CPA) is important and considered to be added value to the degree possessed by accounting graduates. However there are only small figures of the Bumiputera that possessed such professional qualification. The objectives of the study are to investigate the attitude and subjective norm that influence student’s choice of a professional examination using TRA model and also to study the applicability of TRA in the professional accounting settings. A sample of 86 Bumiputera UUM students from Faculty of Accountancy and completed their practical training been selected for the purpose of data collection. The findings of this study has evidenced that the theory of reasoned action can be applied in professional accounting setting as it can support the study of Bumiputera UUM accounting students’ intention to take professional exam. The strong predictive power of beliefs and attitude in students’ intention to take professional exam was examined and identified

The provision of non-audit services, audit partner tenure, a new audit and auditor independence: Evidence from going concern opinions

Independent auditing is an important attribute for efficient capital markets.However, due to the recent corporate scandals in the United States, the regulators are very concerned with the potential threats to the auditor independence such as the provision of management advisory and other non-audit services (NAS) by auditors to their audit client.Thus, specifically, the objectives of this study are to examine the impact of non-audit services, audit partner tenure, and new audit towards the propensity of the auditor in issuing going concern opinion.We utilise logistic regression analysis in this study.The results show that there exist a negative significant relationship between new audit and going concern opinion.However, both NAS and partner tenure variables are found not to be significant.Thus, the implications of these results are discussed

Business zakat compliance behavioral intention in a developing country

Purpose – This study aims to examine the factors influencing the intention to comply with business zakat in a developing country. Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 700 small and medium scale businessmen was drawn using the random sampling method. A total of 524 responses was analyzed using the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique. Findings – Results indicate attitudes toward zakat evasion, attitudes toward moral reasoning, peer influence, zakat knowledge, zakat distribution and perceived zakat board capital positively and significantly influence intention to pay zakat. Interestingly, the enforcement of zakat law was found to significantly influence intention but in a negative direction. Practical implications – Accordingly, it was recommended for policymakers to pay more attention to policy formulation to the identified factors in line with the results so that zakat collection could be increased. Originality/value – The study contributes generally to zakat compliance knowledge and specifically to zakat on business wealth in Muslim majority states in developing countries that are fighting against poverty. The PLS-SEM method and its application in the Islamic field study, especially on zakat payment has a limited discussion in previous studies, which is a unique contribution of this stud

The importance of control environment and its implementation by selected Malaysian public universities in preventing fraud

This study intend to gain insights on selected public universities’ perceptions on control environment as fraud prevention tools and their implementation in the organization based on suggestion by Committee of Sponsoring Organization of the Treadway Commission (COSO), Internal Control Integrated Framework (1992).The results reveal that both UUM and UNIMAP view highly on the importance of control environment in preventing fraud.Both teams of university’s management aware that the five components of the control environment need to be implement especially code of ethics. Unfortunately, this study found that lack of internal audit staff especially faced by UNIMAP lead to their inability to perform pro-active auditing which is part of monitoring components in control environment.The results of this study could assist management to impose better system fraud detection

The important of control environment and its implementation by selected Malaysian public universities in preventing fraud

This study intend to gain insights on selected public universities’ perceptions on control environment as fraud prevention tools and their implementation in the organization based on suggestion by Committee of Sponsoring Organization of the Treadway Commission (COSO), Internal Control Integrated Framework (1992). The results reveal that both UUM and UNIMAP view highly on the importance of control environment in preventing fraud. Both teams of university’s management aware that the five components of the control environment need to be implement especially code of ethics.Unfortunately, this study found that lack of internal audit staff especially faced by UNIMAP lead to their inability to perform pro-active auditing which is part of monitoring components in control environment.The results of this study could assist management to impose better system fraud detection

Construct validity of attitude instrument of zakat payment behaviour amongst Muslim entrepreneur in Malaysia

Various studies state the importance of attitude in shaping one’s behaviour. But there is a gap in the assessment because the instruments have not been able to measure the competency of the factors as well as its conceptualization whether it is uni-dimensional or multidimensional factors. Therefore, it is necessary to prove the validity of the construct to the items in the instrument, especially in the context of zakat compliance behaviour. This study aimed to test that construct instrument validity. A mail survey was conducted among 227 Muslim businessmen in one of the states in Malaysia. Technic of data analysis to prove construct validity was factor analysis, and exploratory factor analysis. The results showed that from all items which were 24, there was 7 items stated as invalid and 17 items were valid. The analysis shows that the uni-dimensional data parameter can measure the construct and give significant effects. It is expected that the finding of this research can complete the constructive knowledge of the items of attitude and contribute to improving the measurement and conceptualization of this construct

Effects of bisphenol a on neonatal cardiomyocytes beating rate and morphology

Bisphenol A (BPA) has been utilised excessively at a global capacity of 2.9 billion kg/year. It is widely used in manufacturing polycarbonate polymers and epoxy resins. Hence, humans are potentially exposed to this chemical substance in their daily life. As a typical endocrine disruptor, BPA exhibits detectable hormone-like properties. Many studies have been linking BPA exposure in humans with the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, however the direct exposure of BPA on cardiomyocytes beating rates and morphology have not been entirely explored. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of BPA on cells structure and function of neonatal rat cardiomyocytes culture. Cardiomyocytes were isolated from 0 to 2 days old newborn rats and treated with 0.001 to 100 µM concentration of BPA. All cardiomyocytes were subjected to immunostaining, beating frequency assessment assay, MTS assay and Scanning Electron microscopy (SEM). In immunostaining, cardiomyocytes showed positive staining for F-actin. This staining allows identification of the cells thus differentiate cardiomyocytes from other cell types. Significance effects of BPA on cardiomyocytes were observed in MTS assay (p<0.05) and beating rates (p<0.01). Significant reduction (48%-64%, ± 1.5280) was observed in beating rate of cardiomyocytes exposed to 0.1 to 100 µM of BPA. Meanwhile in MTS assay, significant reduction (54%, 0.067 ± 0.0026) in cell viability was observed in cells exposed to 0.1 µM of BPA only. Interestingly, under SEM, cardiomyocytes showed altered cell surface homogeneity after BPA exposure. Exposure of 0.1 to 100 µM BPA lead to flatten of cardiomyocytes cell surface and blurring of the cell borders. This study offers an in vitro evidence of BPA effects on cardiomyocytes morphology and beating rates, thus suggest the potential adverse effect of BPA exposure. However, further investigation would be required to understand how BPA effects normal cells morphology and beating rates of heart cells

Removal of As(III) and As(V) from water using green, silica-based ceramic hollow fibre membranes via direct contact membrane distillation

Arsenite [As(III)] and arsenate [As(V)] removal by direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) using novel hydrophobic green, silica-based ceramic hollow fibre membranes derived from agricultural rice husk was investigated in this work. The green ceramic hollow fibre membranes were prepared from amorphous (ASHFM) and crystalline (CSHFM) silica-based rice husk ash and modified to be hydrophobic via immersion fluoroalkylsilane (FAS) grafting of 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane. Superhydrophobic contact angle values up to 157° and 161° were obtained for ASHFM and CSHFM, respectively. Remarkably, the membrane surface morphology mimicked a look-alike lotus-leaf structure with decrement in pore size after grafting via the silane agent for both membranes. The effect of arsenic pH (3–11), arsenic concentration (1–1000 ppm) and feed temperature (50–80 °C) were studied and it was found that feed temperature had a significant effect on the permeate flux. The hydrophobic CSHFM, with a flux of 50.4 kg m−2 h−1 for As(III) and 51.3 kg m−2 h−1 for As(V), was found to be the best of the tested membranes. In fact, this membrane can reject arsenic to the maximum contaminant level (MCL) limit of 10 ppb under any conditions, and no swelling mechanism of the membranes was observed after testing for 4 hours

Low concentration of Bisphenol a induces proliferation of gastric cancer cells, HGC-27

Bisphenol A, an endocrine disrupting compound that affects human homeostasis. Studies on BPA are focusing on the impact of BPA in reproductive function and brain development. However, the effect of BPA on gut especially gastric cells is not well explored. Gut is directly in contact with ingested BPA; therefore, we aimed to determine the effect of BPA exposure on gastric cells proliferation at safe recommended concentration. Human gastric cancer cells (HGC-27) were treated with BPA at different concentration (low: 10-9M, 10-7M; high10-5M, 10-4M) and time point (24 hr, 48 hr, 72 hr). Cell viability assays were determined using MTS assay. Cells were further stained with Alexa Fluor-635 (F-actin) and Fluorescein (Hif-1α) protein for immunocytofluorescence. Data were analysed using ANOVA (p<0.05, n≥3). Cells treated with 10-9M BPA showed significance increase of cell viability after 48 hr (Mean ±SEM; 146%±0.03, p=0.01) and 72 hr (113%±0.03, p=0.00) compared to 24 hr treatment (77%±0.11, p=0.002). Similarly, cell treated with 10-7M BPA showed a significance increase after 48 hr (141%±0.03, p=0.03) and 72 hr (190%±0.03, p=0.02) compared to 24 hr cells treated with 10-7M (88%±0.05, p=0.01) and untreated (100%±0.07). Lower concentration of BPA increases the condensation of F-actin in all HGC-27 cells. Meanwhile, translocation of Hif-1α protein were observed in all BPA-exposed cells. Findings of this study revealed that BPA induced proliferation and condensation of F-actin structure of gastric cancer cells at low concentration