The impact of ex-auditors' employment with audit clients of perceptions of auditor independence

This study examined whether the practice of ex-auditors’ employment with audit clients affects perceptions of auditor independence from the perspective of financial statement users in Malaysia. It has been argued that the main problem with employment with an audit client is the ability of current auditors to remain independent when dealing with top managers who were previously their fellow auditors. The collapse of Enron in 2001 in the United States, along with other infamous financial scandals like Global Crossing and Waste Management revealed that in each of these companies, the senior accounting and finance officers were hired directly from their external auditors. The results of the study showed that financial statement users are concerned about the practice of ex-auditors seeking employment with audit clients. However, the cooling-off period of 2 years that audit firms must observe before an audit partner joins a client company (otherwise, the firms have to resign from the audit engagement) was perceived as sufficient to safeguard auditor independence. As the majority of respondents seemed to support the current policy, a reduction or an extension of the existing cooling-off period is deemed not necessary

A System of Child Detection in Car Using Thermal Sensor

There are some cases about the child died in the car that causes by the parent did not aware their child being left in the car in long duration time. Therefore, there is a project that can overcome the problem of children being left behind in the car that is a prototype that can detect children in the car by using heat-sensing technology and effective indicators to users so that users are aware of the indicators in the prototype system be created. The system of the prototype consists of Arduino MKR WIFI 1010, thermal sensor, buzzer, LEDs, relay, and power bank that be constructed in circuit. This work evaluates the prototype able to detect child remain in car using thermal sensor with detection range is 37cm on the rear car seat and also able to notify the user about its using indicator LED and buzzer alarm. The prototype will connect to the car to operate as the flow in the flowchart. This prototype helps the user to prevent the child be left in a car

Relationship between the industry specialist auditors and financial reporting timeliness under MFRS

This paper aims to identify the association between financial reporting timeliness and the presence of industry specialist auditors. The auditor’s report lag (ARL) is used as a proxy for the financial reporting timeliness. The association between the two factors was examined through the resource dependence theory. Data comprise the 2012 annual reports of 796 Malaysian public listed companies and 342 of these companies had fully complied with the Malaysian Financial Reporting Standards (MFRS). From the results noted, it appears that financial reporting timeliness can be improved through the engagement of industry specialist auditors. This outcome contributes to the existing literature in auditing by enlarging the empirical evidence that was assessed with four different methods

Auditor independence in Malaysia: the perceptions of loan officers and professional investors

The current study examined several issues regarding auditor independence from the perspective of an emerging market such as Malaysia. A spate of ‘mini-Enrons’ in 2007 and 2008 has raised questions of investor confidence in the financial system specifically the national stock market. These scandals involving listed companies have highlighted concerns of regulators and other interested parties relating to threats to auditor independence. Factors affecting the ability of auditors to remain independent include long audit tenure, financial dependence on a single audit client, non-audit services provided to audit clients, ex-auditor employment with an audit client and the existence of audit committees. It is therefore timely to examine the importance of auditor independence in the provision of reliable and credible financial information. The current study uses a questionnaire survey to examine users’ (bank loan officers and professional investors) perceptions of the impact of the various factors on auditor independence. The results of the study revealed that Malaysian users of financial statements have serious concerns about the threats to auditor independence. The results also reveal that audit committees are perceived as the main safeguard for auditor independence. In general, both groups of respondents agreed that the current regulations for auditors, as set down by the Malaysian Institute of Accountants’ By-Laws, were sufficient to safeguard auditor independence. However, there are mechanisms that the financial statement users believed should be implemented that could provide greater protection for their investment. For example, the loan officers in this study seemed to prefer mandatory audit firm rotation to partner rotation. Further investigation indicated that differences existed in perceptions across the examined demographic and background variables. The results of the study also suggest that Malaysian loan officers and professional investors still have faith in the auditing profession and this is reflected in their belief that audited financial statements are important for them to make lending and investing decisions

The extent of audit report lag and governance mechanisms: Evidence from Islamic banking institutions in Malaysia

The purpose of this study is to examine the extent of audit report lag (ARL) and its association with governance mechanisms in the Islamic banking institutions in Malaysia. The extent of ARL lag is defined by the number of days from a company’s financial year-end to the signature date on its audit report. The sample of the study comprises 112 observations of Islamic banking institutions’ financial reports for the period 2008-2014. A balanced panel data analysis is performed to analyse the association between the extent of ARL and governance mechanisms. The findings show that the extent of ARL for the sample selected ranges from a minimum period of 7 days to a maximum period of 161 days which approximately two months on average. A fixed effects analysis indicates that audit committee expertise and audit committee meeting have significant association with the extent of ARL. On the other hand, board independence, audit committee size and Shari’ah board expertise have insignificant association with the extent of ARL. In addition, one control variable (Islamic bank size) is found to be significantly associated with longer ARL. The findings provide useful feedback for Malaysian policymakers on the past and current practices of financial reports and of governance mechanisms. The findings of the study would help the policymakers in monitoring the Islamic banking institutions’ compliance with financial reports submission requirements. The policymakers perhaps could relook into governance mechanisms that could reduce the extent of ARL in the Islamic banking institutions and implement regulations to strengthen them

Constructing STEM 3R Activity through Service-Learning Program during Movement Restriction

Service-learning is an experiential learning activity that enables mobility from classes in higher learning institutions to be transferred into the community. In this article, we construct a STEM 3R activity that is aligned with school children's curricula to be delivered in an engaging, active, and personalized way. The activity is constructed by using the ExDiDD (Explore, Discover, Develop, Deliver) framework, and is being assessed through dedicated rubrics. Findings suggest improved excitement and interest in STEM education, as well as increase understanding of the environmental issues throughout the activit

Ensuring auditor independence: the case for small-medium practices in Malaysia

Research aim: The study aims to examine small and medium audit firms’ compliance on independence requirements as stipulated in the International Standard on Quality Control 1 (ISQC 1) in Malaysia. Design/ Methodology/ Approach: This study is qualitative in nature. It uses semi-structured interviews to gather input from twenty-seven managers and partners of small and medium audit firms in Malaysia. Research finding: The findings highlight variations in compliance practices on the extent of independence requirements among small and medium audit firms. Some of these firms partially complied while others showed non-compliance. Findings further indicate that majority documented their independence policies and procedures by means of audit manual or audit checklist, communicated during the year. The study also found that financial and physical resources are considered as the main challenges which hinder greater compliance. Theoretical contribution/ Originality: There is a lack of study looking at the actual practice of independence requirements among small and medium firms in emerging economies. This study addressed that gap by focussing on small and medium audit firms in Malaysia. Majority of previous studies on regulatory inspection had focussed on Anglo-Saxon countries. Practitioner/ Policy implication: Findings suggest that small and medium audit firms had given their best to comply with the independence requirements despite constraints on financial and human resources. As such, further awareness on the importance of independence would enhance the compliance level as well as audit value and quality of other firms. Research limitation: Interview data were extracted from a small sample, hence generalisations may need to be defined more cautiously when applied to other contexts. Moreover, respondents were selected based on their agreement, thus findings reflecting their practices may not be applicable to other small and medium audit firms

Rasch model assessment of algebraic word problem among year 8 Malaysian students

Word problems continue to be a challenge for students today. All students must meet the prerequisites for problem solving and reasoning skills, which are important components of the critical thinking component of 21st century skills. This study is being conducted to assess students’ strategies for solving word problems with numbers, consecutives, and ages. The Rasch model is used to analyze the item difficulty level of word problems and students’ strategies for solving ten-word problems at various levels of item difficulty in a similar trait. Then, Pearson correlation analysis is used to investigate the item difficulty level in relation to linguistic, algebraic, and arithmetic factors of word problems before evaluating students’ performance on solving these word problems using various strategies. Rasch model found these algebraic word-problem questions are slightly harder for year 8 Malaysian students in relative to an international standard. Meanwhile, the item difficulty of word problems is driven by linguistic and algebra factors where students can score accurately if the word problems contained explicit information. However, the students encountered difficulties while losing their solution strategy when the questions contained implicit data that demanded critical thinking ability

Kesejahteraan dalam Pembangunan Komuniti Program Perumahan Rakyat (PPR): Suatu Pemerhatian Awal

Program Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) merupakan satu dasar kerajaan dalam menyeimbangkan keperluan asas tempat tinggal kepada rakyat yang tergolong dalam kategori B40 untuk memelihara hak kemanusiaan rakyat Malaysia agar menjalani kelangsungan kehidupan yang sejahtera. PPR sebagai Key Performance Indicator (KPI) oleh Kementerian Perumahan dan Kerajaan Tempatan (KPKT) untuk diberi fokus terhadap keberkesanan tahap kesejahteraan PPR. PPR menitikberatkan elemen kualiti kehidupan dan kesejahteraan sosial kepada penghuninya. Namun, wujud permasalahan mengaitkan isu kesejahteraan pembangunan komuniti PPR apabila ketidakcapaian kesejahteraan berlaku. Kajian tentang kesejahteraan ini dilakukan melalui sorotan literatur bagi memastikan tahap kesejahteraan dapat dicapai secara holistik