Production of Xylose from Oil Palm Trunk

Oil palm trunk is an oil palm biomass which is the renewable source for the production of many useful products, such as xylose. The study provides efficient analysis on optimizing xylose concentration, in order to obtain higher productivity and yield of xylitol. Xylose is safe, healthy, toxin free substance that can allow people to enjoy the flavor of sugar without negative effects on the body. The objectives of this study are to produce valuable products (xylose and xylitol) from waste oil palm trunk, to identify the effects of sulfuric acid concentration and hydrolysis time on the production of xylose from oil palm trunk. The hydrolysis of oil palm trunk powder was carried out by contacting powder with 3%, 5% and 7% sulfuric acid at 60 °C for 60, 120 and 180 minutes. The acid hydrolysis is using sulfuric acid wood mass ratio of 8: 1 g/g. After hydrolysis reaction, solid part was removed by filtration and the filtrate was neutralized with CaCO3 and then undergoes detoxification process by using activated carbon powdered with the mass ratio 10:1 of hydrolysate/charcoal powder. The percentage of xylose will be analyzed from the hydrolysate by using High Performance Liquid Chromatography machine. From the literature, the results obtained was the higher acid concentrations led to higher sugar recovery but longer hydrolysis’s time caused lower amount in sugar recovery. For a conclusion, the high value products which are xylose can be produce from waste oil palm biomass

Readiness of Malaysian public sector employees in moving towards accrual accounting for improve accountability: The case of Ministry of Education (MOE)

In recent years, there has been increasing number of debates between adoptions of cash accounting versus accrual accounting in government accounting in the Malaysian public sector.This issue arises due to the government needs to determine either to stay on cash accounting or move to accrual accounting.The objective of the study is to determine the readiness of Malaysian public sector employees in the Ministry of Education (MOE) for the implementation of accrual accounting, major concerns together with challenges in moving towards accrual accounting.Finding from this study shows that accounting employees are ready for the implementation of accrual accounting and are willing to move to accrual accounting

The impact of management control systems on performance of Malaysian local authorities

An increasing number of profit and non-profit organizations implementing management control systems (MCSs) have proven the importance of the systems in improving organizational performance. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence concerning how the MCSs affect the performance of local authorities.Even though there are some previous studies concerning the performance of local authorities, most only focus on performance measurement methods, such as the use of balanced scorecard and performance indicators.The application of MCSs and their effect on performance are rarely discussed in local authorities, especially in the Malaysian environment.Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine the impact of MCSs on performance of Malaysian local authorities by using the structural equation modeling (SEM) tool. Statistical results showed that the internal formal control were significantly associated with all three performance dimensions – financial, service quality, and procedural, as expected. However, the internal informal control only had a direct relationship with the service quality performance, and did not have a significant relationship with the financial performance and procedural performance.This study contributes to the literature concerning the structural linkage among internal controls and performance constructs within Malaysian local authorities by developing and testing the hypothesized relationships using SEM analysis

Misappropriation of assets: A decepticon of leakages in Malaysian public sector

Decepticon, true to its name, may transform into various disguise.The villain take many forms from a flashy luxurious cars to even military vehicles. Similar to Decepticon, the episodes of misappropriation of assets in government sector runs from small misuse of stationeries to misuse of official vehicles for personal interest. It is indeed a leakage of expenditure to the government because the authority has spent unnecessary costs to cater this type of crime.Many has regarded asset misappropriation as harmless.Though the incidences might not be significant, yet, if it is left untreated, the authority will spend more money than it should. Hence, the objectives of this study is to find the empirical evidence on awareness against fraud deterrence among Malaysian public servants. As propositions, this study resolved on the inspiration that resilience against frauds can be developed through trainings, effective enforcement and control.Barrier such employees’ character should be considered as deterrence for fraud awareness. Based on Rules no.4.(2)(c) of Peraturan-Peraturan Pegawai Awam (Kelakuan dan Tatatertib) 1993 (Pindaan 2002), this research employed semi-structural interview method to capture details and descriptive data so that this study is able to get the comprehensive understanding on the missing link between government inspiration and practice.4 public servants ranging from 1 to 20 years of service have been selected for our preliminary studies to validate our research propositions.In effect, despite of that the policy is massively available in the government’s portal, the respondent claimed that they were not familiar with Rules no.4.(2)(c) and their decisions on the do’s and don’ts are entirely dependable on their faith and internal strength.Mentality of public servants is identified as key barrier towards awareness of fraud deterrence.There were few studies on fraud deterrence in Malaysian public sector.This study focus on the same scenario, yet supplemented with a study on fraud awareness amongst the government servant

Personal cost of reporting and status of wrongdoer: experimental study pf whistleblowing intention / Claudia Vinska Vinancia, Intiyas Utami and Nafsiah Mohamed.

Whistleblowing is an important action for the organization as a form of internal control of illegal actions that cause losses. This study aimed to test of causality of the personal cost of reporting and status of the wrongdoer on whistleblowing intention. This study used a true experimental design between subjects 2x2. The subjects of this study were 95 accounting study program students. The students acted as the government’s internal auditor. The results of this study indicate that whistleblowing intentions will be higher in personal cost of reporting and the status of the wrongdoer low compared to personal cost of reporting and status of wrongdoer high. A whistleblower prefers not to perform whistleblowing when the wrongdoer has a higher position and sanctions to be received are severe

Spiritual intelligence: narrowing the gap between the ethical and non-ethical values of public sector employees / Rozaiha Abd Majid, Nafsiah Mohamed and Zanariah Mahmud

This paper highlights the possibility that having the knowledge in spiritual intelligence could deter and ultimately eliminate fraud in the Public Sector in Malaysia. This is due to the fact that having a good internal control does not guarantee that the employees would not conduct fraud. A study conducted in a local authority proved that a good internal control system may not be the effective answer to prevent fraud from occurring. It is recommended that knowledge and awareness in spiritual intelligence could improve the ethical values among employees

A review on computer technology applications in fraud detection and prevention / Rafidah Zainal, Ayub Md Som and Nafsiah Mohamed.

Since the advancement in computer technology, fraud has become one of the high risk crimes in the world which needs urgent detection and prevention at early stage. Nowadays, different kinds of fraud exist in commercial areas namely; credit card, healthcare insurance, online reviews, telecommunications, automobile, etc. Fraud can also happen internally and externally in an organisation. In internal fraud an employee commits it individually, whereas the external fraud involves a wide range of schemes including a third party. Therefore, a detection and prevention mechanism system in the form of computer software is essential in preventing fraud so as to curb further financial losses. The aim of this paper is to critically review the use of computer technology to detect and prevent fraud in selected areas. Recent computer platforms used as a tool to develop fraud detection and prevention system are namely; spreadsheets, big data, forensic analytics, text analytics and expert systems. Based on the review, expert systems have been found to be the best option used as a future tool to curb fraud. The opportunities from this review may allow others to explore more on the technology implemented so as to improve fraud detection and prevention in the future

Un estudio comparativo sobre la etapa de implementación de la integridad corporativa en los sectores públicos de Malasia

Nowadays, corruption and fraud are being covered in news continuously. Starting in 2004, the fifth Malaysian Prime Minister, Tun Abdullah Badawi had launched a National Integrity Plan (NIP) to fight corruption and behold the nobility of integrity among civil servants. Malaysian Institute of Integrity (IIM) was then established, and IIM together with a few Malaysian university academicians developed a tool called Corporate Integrity Assessment Questionnaire (CIAQ) to measure the level of integrity in an organization adopted from a global Ethics and Integrity Benchmark previously introduced by Joan Elise Dubinsky from The United State of America. CIAQ consists of 12 Dimensions, in which each dimension has its own descriptors making a total of 214 questions pertaining to the level of integrity in the organization. In total, 179 respondents from Public Sector A (PSA) and 151 respondents in Public Sector B (PSB) take part in this assessment by completing and returning the questionnaires. All responses received have been screened for missing data, outliers, withdrawal from normality and other fitting checks for irregularity. Both public sectors have shown that their overall scores are slightly above 50% in which 56% for PSA and 53% for PSB. These results indicate that they are beginning to implement ethics and integrity mechanisms in their organization to maintain the highest levels of transparency, integrity, and professionalism.Hoy en día, la corrupción y el fraude están siendo cubiertos en las noticias continuamente. A partir de 2004, el quinto Primer Ministro de Malasia, Tun Abdullah Badawi, lanzó un Plan Nacional de Integridad (NIP) para combatir la corrupción y contemplar la nobleza de integridad entre los funcionarios públicos. El Instituto de Integridad de Malasia (IIM) se estableció luego, e IIM, junto con algunos académicos universitarios de Malasia, desarrolló una herramienta llamada Cuestionario de Evaluación de la Integridad Corporativa (CIAQ) para medir el nivel de integridad en una organización adoptada de un Punto de Referencia de Ética e Integridad global introducido previamente por Joan Elise Dubinsky de los Estados Unidos de América. CIAQ consta de 12 Dimensiones, en las que cada dimensión tiene sus propios descriptores, lo que hace un total de 214 preguntas relacionadas con el nivel de integridad en la organización. En total, 179 encuestados del Sector Público A (PSA) y 151 encuestados en el Sector Público B (PSB) participan en esta evaluación completando y devolviendo los cuestionarios. Todas las respuestas recibidas se han evaluado en busca de datos faltantes, valores atípicos, retiro de la normalidad y otras comprobaciones de ajuste de irregularidades. Ambos sectores públicos han demostrado que sus puntajes generales están ligeramente por encima del 50%, de los cuales el 56% para PSA y el 53% para PSB. Estos resultados indican que están comenzando a implementar mecanismos de ética e integridad en su organización para mantener los niveles más altos de transparencia, integridad y profesionalismo

A Comparative Study on the Implementation of Corporate Integrity between Malaysian Public and Private Sectors Organization

With regards to fighting corruption and promoting transparency in organization, agency integrity unit was established in 2013 in managing issues related to integrity. In addition, a Corporate Integrity Assessment Questionnaire (CIAQ) has been developed by the Malaysian Institute of Integrity in collaboration with several Malaysian academicians to measure the implementation of the integrity system in their organization. There were 173 respondents from Company A (public sector), and 220 respondents from Company B (private sector) and the findings showed that Company A has integrity level between 75% to 100% . In contrast, Company B integrity level is between 50% to 75%.     Keywords: corporate integrity, public sector, private sector, statutory body.    eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.   DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5iSI1.232

Public accounts committee (PAC) of a Malaysian state: An exploratory analysis

Of the three legislature's functions, unlike representation and law-making, oversight is particularly related to PACs. As a strong committee of legislature, PACs can emerge as a potential structural solution to the need of the State Legislative Assemblies (SLAs) to monitor the financial conducts of the state governments. However, to do so, studies have suggested that PACs' institutional designs and capacity building are among factors to be improved to promote PACs' effectiveness. Within Malaysian PACs context, much about the related situations is not known for sure due to lack or limited exploration on the matter. Thus, besides attempting for an exploration of PAC practices in general, one of the Malaysian state government's PAC institutional settings and capacity are explored in order to illuminate the state of affairs. Generation of data to address the topic understudy is based on interviews, observation and also use of documents. Such information gives this research a knowledge base to launch further inquiries into future research initiatives regarding the topic