Corporate social responsibility practices among the SMEs in Malaysia - a preliminary analysis / Norhafizah Norbit, Anuar Nawawi and Ahmad Saiful Azlin Puteh Salin.

There are four main objectives of this study. First, to examine the level of CSR practice in selected Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Second, to determine the motivation of implementing CSR practices. Third, to determine the barriers on the implementation of CSR practices. Finally, to examine the attitude of twenty selected Malaysian SMEs owners towards CSR practice. This study employed a mixed method in data collection and analysis via survey questionnaires to the selected SMEs and archival analysis by examining the financial reports of those SMEs. This study found that SMEs is still lag behind in implementing CSR practices. Although they understand the benefits such as enhancing company’s reputation and promote brand name, limited fund available and proper training required prevent them to implement effective CSR practices. This study also found that the SMEs’ owners have a positive attitude on CSR practices

Public sector accountability – evidence from the auditor general’s reports / Juliana Shariman, Anuar Nawawi and Ahmad Saiful Azlin Puteh Salin

This study aimed to identify the common issues frequently raised in the Auditor General’s reports and to investigate whether the levels of inefficiencies quoted in the Auditor General’s reports keep increasing or decreasing during the period of investigation. This study was based on the secondary data comprising the Auditor’s General report and was supported with feedback reports received from the ministry, department, state, and other government agencies. This study found that not in compliance with procedures recorded the highest issues highlighted in the Auditor General’s report, followed by the procurement and asset management. In addition, all the issues showed a decreasing trend for both federal government and statutory bodies, indicating an improvement in the efficiencies of management and higher accountability that have been demonstrated by civil servants

Corporate social responsibility practices among the SMEs in Malaysia – a preliminary analysis / Norhafizah Norbit, Anuar Nawawi and Ahmad Saiful Azlin Puteh Salin.

There are four main objectives of this study. First, to examine the level of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices in selected Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Second, to determine the motivation for implementing CSR practices. Third, to determine the barriers to the implementation of CSR practices. Finally, to examine the attitude of twenty selected Malaysian SMEs owners towards CSR practices. This study employed a mixed method in data collection and analysis via survey questionnaires to the selected SMEs and archival analysis by examining the financial reports of those SMEs. This study found that SMEs is still lag behind in implementing CSR practices. Although they understand the benefits such as enhancing company’s reputation and promote brand name, limited funds available and proper training required prevented them from implementing effective CSR practices. This study also found that the SMEs’ owners have a positive attitude towards CSR practices

Improving tax compliance via tax education - Malaysian experience / Norzilah Hassan, Anuar Nawawi and Ahmad Saiful Azlin Puteh Salin

Tax education has always been one of central focus to the tax authority in Malaysia. It reflects the commitment of the agency to educate taxpayer in every possible ways. The objective of this study is to determine whether tax education program tax implemented by the tax authority does effect the compliance among the taxpayers. The sample was randomly selected from population with 60 responses. It was found that taxpayers really used the information on tax education wisely. Although it still need some improvement, it is still the best practise to encourage more people to know and learn about tax. It also shows that the taxpayers have a good perception toward tax education programmed. For future research, this study suggests the positive perception towards tax education programmed of the taxpayer need to be enhanced to give the taxpayers more exposure on tax education programme

The usefulness of financial statement reporting by charitable companies limited by guarantee in Malaysia / Ahmad Saiful Azlin Puteh Salin, Muhammad Faiz Tumiran and Anuar Nawawi.

The purpose of this study is primarily to scrutinize the usefulness of financial statement reporting by charitable companies limited by guarantee in Malaysia as prescribed in the rules and regulations. The main concern is whether there is limitation for the charitable company to follow this requirement in which, its performance and accountability will be analyzed. These attributions will lead to the improvement on the level of governance and accountability to satisfy all the relevant parties, especially the stakeholders and public interest. 50 companies were selected as a sample and three years of financial reports from 2009 to 2011 were scrutinized. Descriptive analysis was used to analyse the data. This study found that the majority of the charitable companies adopted PERS (Private Entity Reporting Standard) and FRS (Financial Reporting Standard) in preparing their financial report while less than 5 percent did not clearly state their accounting standard. For the establishment objective, at least half of the companies spent more than 50 percent contribution received for their institution. This study also found that more than 80 percent of the companies at least provided a minimum disclosure on the contributions received in their financial report with a moderate level quality of information. However, less than 50 percent of the companies fully complied with the basic requirement of the Companies Act 1965 and are being compounded by the regulators

Risk management practices in tourism industry - a case study of resort management / Nur Rahifah Amirudin, Anuar Nawawi and Ahmad Saiful Azlin Puteh Salin.

The purpose of this research was to identify the risks factors associated with the operation of a resort and the risk management techniques used to reduce the risks. One resort was selected as the case study and document analysis and observation were used as data collection methods. This study found that the risks can be managed through the right combination of risk management techniques. Despite weak monitoring activities, incomplete operating procedures, and inferior attitude by the workforce seems to impact the management of the resort, fast and intelligent response may be able to overcome the situation and prevent the worst possible outcomes

Pengurusan agihan zakat asnaf mu’allaf di Majlis Agama Islam Negeri Johor

Makalah berbentuk kajian deskriptif ini bertujuan untuk meneliti pengurusan agihan zakat asnaf mu’allaf di Majlis Agama Islam Negeri Johor (MAINJ). Instrumen kajian yang digunakan ialah kajian dokumen dan soal selidik. Sampel kajian seramai 30 orang yang terdiri daripada kalangan saudara baru terlibat dalam kajian ini dan lokasi kajian ialah di negeri Johor Darul Takzim. Terdapat dua konstruk yang dikaji, iaitu persepsi saudara baru terhadap pengurusan agihan zakat dan kesan-kesan agihan zakat kepada saudara baru. Dapatan kajian ini menunjukkan responden agak berpuas hati dengan sistem agihan zakat di MAINJ. Secara holistik, kajian ini merumuskan bahawa agihan zakat untuk asnaf mu’allaf adalah amat penting untuk dilaksanakan dan diuruskan dengan baik demi kesejahteraan para mu’allaf, khasnya dalam hal-ehwal pengurusan agihan zakat golongan ini di MAINJ

Internal control weaknesses in a cooperative body: Malaysian experience

The purpose of this study is to examine the current state of the internal control practices in the cooperative body, an organisation area that has always been neglected in governance empirical research. This study also provides recommendations to overcome those weaknesses. A case study approach was selected for this study by selecting one cooperative body as a case. This study employed document analysis as the method of data collection and the data were analysed by using the latest COSO Internal Control – Integrated Framework. This study found that the selected cooperative body had very poor internal control. There was low data integrity where too many errors were detected in both the financial and non-financial data, while its daily transactions were recorded by using manual tools but without proper security leading to possible fraud. Furthermore, the effort to automate the system by acquiring a new software program has miserably failed due to incompetency of the workforce. To worsen matters, the employees also did not appreciate the importance of internal control

Germination at low osmotic potential as a selection criteria for drought stress tolerance in sweet corn

Water stress can affect germination by decreasing the percentage of germination. A study was undertaken to evaluate the influence of different osmotic potentials (MPa) on proline content and percentage seed germination of corn. The experiment was conducted in factorial with a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Seeds of two open pollinated varieties (Masmadu and Thai super sweet) and three hybrids (968, 969 and 926) sweet corn were germinated at 0, -0.2, -0.5, -0.7, -1.2 and -1.4 MPa osmotic potentials, respectively. Results show that the percentage of germination and coefficient of velocity (CVG) decreased with decrease in osmotic potential while proline content and mean germination time (MGT) increased. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) increased root length (RL) and length per volume (LPV) at low osmotic potential (-0.2 MPa) but decreased at more than -0.7 MPa. Seedling proline content appears not to be related to percentage germination but appears to be related to the decline in osmotic potential in germination media. Seed germination test at -0.7 to -1.2 MPa has the potential to be used as a vigor test in sweet corn.Keywords: Osmotic potential, germination, polyethylene glycol, corn, proline contentAfrican Journal of Biotechnology, Vol. 13(2), pp. 294-300, 8 January, 201

Penerapan fiqh awlawiyyat dalam dakwah kepada saudara baru

Islam ialah agama milik semua manusia tanpa mengira bangsa, warna kulit dan budaya. Umat Islam perlu memainkan peranan utama dalam menyampaikan dakwah kepada orang bukan Islam dengan cara terbaik. Mereka yang berjinak-jinak dengan Islam dan memeluk agama Islam perlu diberi perhatian yang sewajarnya dalam memantapkan kefahaman mereka terhadap Islam. Manakala bagi mereka yang belum menerima Islam juga tidak dipinggirkan bahkan perlu diberi perhatian dengan memberi penerangan yang jelas tentang Islam. Kajian ini akan memberi penumpuan khusus kepada aplikasi dakwah kepada saudara baru dari perspektif fiqh awlawiyyat. Berdakwah merupakan kewajipan umat Islam dan wajar dilaksanakan dengan mengutamakan kaedah yang berkesan mengikut kepada sasaran. Antara salah satu pendekatan yang boleh digunakan dalam melaksanakan tugasan dakwah kepada saudara baru ialah melalui fiqh awlawiyyat