A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investing scheme which promises high rates of return with little r... more A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investing scheme which promises high rates of return with little risk to investors. The scheme has led to a substantial amount of financial leakages in recent years. Despite warnings by the law enforcement agencies and regulators, many have unfortunately fallen victim. Hence, the current measures are limited in preventing the fraudulent schemes. Therefore, the present study aimed to identify the influencing factors for joining Ponzi schemes by examining the modus operandi used, profile of victims and fraudsters and to investigate the current measures in preventing Ponzi schemes in Malaysia. This study employed a qualitative methodology with semi-structured interviews and document reviews to collect data. Interviews involving eight interviewees with regulators, enforcers, and victims revealed that prevention of Ponzi schemes should be addressed holistically by examining the modus operandi used, profile of victims and fraudsters. Findings further indicated that the prevention measures are led by three core elements consisting of education, regulations and enforcement. Additionally, education is the best approach to ensure an effective preventive strategy which needs to be supported by a specific regulations on Ponzi schemes. This study provides recent evidence on Ponzi schemes and valuable insights for future development of preventive measures.
International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, 2022
Money laundering offences have becoming important issues worldwide. Within the accounting fratern... more Money laundering offences have becoming important issues worldwide. Within the accounting fraternity, discussions have involved an important issue related to the low level of compliance by professional accountants towards the anti-money laundering regime in Malaysia. In the context of this study, anti-money laundering regime refers to both the legislative requirements of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (AMLA 2001) and the international standards requirements of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Since the introduction of AMLA 2001, professional accountants (includes auditors, tax consultants and practicing accountants) have been named as a reporting institution. As a reporting institution, professional accountants are required to implement compliance programs and to submit related suspicious transaction reports. Three compliance programs named by the anti-money laundering regime are namely "Know your customers or KYC", "Clients due Diligent CDD" and "Record keeping". This study was undertaken to examine the importance of competency and training among professional accountant towards money laundering compliance. This study used Protection Motivation Theory to explain on the importance of that attributes. A questionnaire survey was developed and sent to professional accountants. Findings from this study have identified that "competency & training" found to be significantly related to the level of compliance towards anti-money laundering regime.
Financial statement fraud involves the manipulation of financial accounts by overstating assets, ... more Financial statement fraud involves the manipulation of financial accounts by overstating assets, sales and profit, understating liabilities and expenses.One of the causes of financial statement fraud is due to threat of bankruptcy. This study explores the effectiveness of Altman Z-Score in predicting the occurrence of financial statement fraud.This study makes a comparison between non-fraudulent companies and fraudulent companies.The sample of non-fraudulent companies is selected from small market capitalization companies in Malaysia.Meanwhile, the sample for fraudulent companies is selected from companies which were charged by the Securities Commission for falsifying financial statements.The result shows that fraudulent companies display sign of bankruptcy before it is charged with falsification of financial statement fraud.
This preliminary study examines the supply chain management (SCM) practices implemented at an aut... more This preliminary study examines the supply chain management (SCM) practices implemented at an automobile manufacturing firm operating in Malaysia. The case companys performance measurement system and the accountants role in the SCM processes are also examined. The case findings indicate that supply chain planning, long term partnership with suppliers, communication and trust form the basis of effective SCM practices in the selected case company. Contrary to the literature, efforts dedicated to measure and monitor supply chain performance holistically within the case company is still scarce. The findings also suggest that despite the wide use of management accounting tools and practices in SCM processes, accountantsrole in the SCM processes is limited. This initial findings offer some insights on the SCM practices in an automotive manufacturing industry. A next step from this exploratory research could be the development of a framework exploring the impact of SCM practices on organiz...
This paper aims to assess good governance and development nexus based on the Theory of Maqāsid al... more This paper aims to assess good governance and development nexus based on the Theory of Maqāsid al Sharī’ah (TMS). The central hypothesis of the paper is that good governance; with a specific focus on human rights and social justice has a significant relationship with human development including factors like education, health, and income all emerging from of the essentials of Sharī’ah. The paper employed survey questionnaire to collect data from 384 respondents comprising Muslims in South-western Nigeria. A stratified random sampling technique was used. The findings show that TMS is effective in predicting the direction of relationship between good governance and human development. The findings further show that the model is invariant across gender groups. This paper highlights the applicability of the constructs of TMS model into human development research. It also recommends strategic policy direction for the policymakers. Keywords: Deprivation, gender invariance, well-being, Maqās...
This study examines the association between government-linked investment companies’ (GLICs’) shar... more This study examines the association between government-linked investment companies’ (GLICs’) shareholdings and real earnings management activities in Malaysia. Consistent with prior research, this study uses three proxies to measure real earnings management; abnormal cash flow from operations (RCFO), abnormal production costs (RPC), and abnormal discretionary expenses (RDE). This study segregates GLICs’ shareholdings into two categories; Federal Government Pension Investment Funds (FGPIF) and other GLICs (OFGLIC). Using a sample of 213 firm-year observations of Malaysian government-linked companies from 2010 to 2015, this study finds that FGPIF is a more effective monitoring mechanism than OFGLIC in limiting real earnings management. The findings also show that there is a significant and negative relationship between Employee Provident Fund (EPF), Khazanah Nasional Berhad (Khazanah), Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) and RCFO and RPC. The evidence suggests that these three are the mo...
The purpose of this research is to explore and describe the implementation of the Target Costing ... more The purpose of this research is to explore and describe the implementation of the Target Costing (TC) system as well as its effect on the dynamic capabilities (DC), success factors (SF) and dysfunctional behaviours (DB) of manufacturing firms in Indonesia. As there had been no prior research conducted on the consequences of the target costing implementation in Indonesia, this study, which had been one of the projects undertaken for improving the validity of variables and costing studies in Asia Pacific countries, was therefore performed by way of surveys along with the descriptive-quantitative and multiple regression analyses for gauging its impact on the company’s internal and competitive environment. It was found that better company performance results (PR) had not only stemmed from a low DB level, but were also influenced by the resulting strong DC from the implemented TC system. Apart from demonstrating the target pricing systems as being a triggering factor of DB, this study al...
Ponzi Scheme and Its Prevention:Insights from Malaysia
Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investing schemes which promises high rates of return with little ri... more Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investing schemes which promises high rates of return with little risk to investors. The scheme has led to substantial amount of financial leakages in recent years. Despite warnings by the law enforcement agencies and various alerts by regulators, many have unfortunately fallen for such schemes. Hence, the current measures are limited in preventing the fraudulent schemes. Therefore, the present study aims to present key insights into the modus operandi, profiles of fraudsters and victims as well as prevention measures undertaken by regulators and law enforcement agency in Malaysia. This study employs a qualitative methodology involving semi-structured interviews and document reviews to collect data. Interviews with regulators, enforcers, and victims revealed that the emergence of digitally promoted modus operandi in recent years posed new challenges to both regulators and enforcers to detect and prevent Ponzi schemes. Additionally, education is the best ...
IAES International Journal of Artificial Intelligence (IJ-AI), 2020
Corporate tax avoidance reduces government revenues which could limit country development plans. ... more Corporate tax avoidance reduces government revenues which could limit country development plans. Thus, the main objectives of this study is to establish a rigorous and effective model to detect corporate tax avoidance to assist government to prevent such practice. This paper presents the fundamental knowledge on the design and implementation of machine learning model based on five selected algorithms tested on the real dataset of 3,365 Malaysian companies listed on bursa Malaysia from 2005 to 2015. The performance of each machine learning algorithms on the tested dataset has been observed based on two approaches of training. The accuracy score for each algorithm is better with the cross-validation training approach. Additionationally, with the cross-validation training approach, the performances of each machine learning algorithm were tested on different group of features selection namely industry, governance, year and firm characteristics. The findings indicated that the machine le...
Management & Accounting Review (MAR), Jun 23, 2016
Board independence is an important corporate governance element and without good governance it is... more Board independence is an important corporate governance element and without good governance it is impossible to form a unitary board system. After the crash in Bangladesh in 2011, it becomes a major issue for public listed companies in Bangladesh to follow a unitary system. This study addresses the issue by examining statistical relationship between corporate ownership and board independence. Descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis and multiple regression techniques are applied in analyzing the attitudes of family, public and institutional owners towards board composition, the degree of influence each type of owner has on board and the presence goes beyond board independence. The results show that board are lacking in independence and family ownership has a significant, negative effect on board independence, in which the results indicate that public and institutional ownership have a positive, nonsignificant influence. It is recommended for professionals to be included on board and that nonexecutive directors should be selected by a search committee to ensure that their competency matches the firm needs. It is further recommended that there should be a minimum of two independent directors and that management should be motivated, in line with the positive reinforcement theory. The German or Japanese model (two-tier board) can also be considered. This study also suggests that regulators should rethink how an independent and professional board can be formed when the barrier of concentrated ownership is removed.
Curing Corruption in Indonesia: A Behavioral Perspective
This paper discusses corruption, in particular bribery, from a different angle. Instead of taking... more This paper discusses corruption, in particular bribery, from a different angle. Instead of taking the more common perspective of law and politics, this paper chooses to see the phenomenon from behavioral perspective to shed light on why people decide to engage in corrupt acts in Indonesia and how to put an end to it. Also, by nature, corruption is an interdisciplinary issue requiring the understanding of a number of different areas of knowledge for prevention and investigation. Corruption problems in Indonesia are often approached with repressive mechanisms (e.g. investigations, arrests, and prosecutions by the authorities). This paper proposes that to curb corruption, at least in the long run, through mitigating its market by, among other things, reducing its participants and products.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) supports the sharing of information to improve the... more Information and Communication Technology (ICT) supports the sharing of information to improve the Quality of Governance (QoG). Many studies found a relationship between ICT diffusion and globalization and between ICT diffusion and the Quality of Governance. This study investigates the influence of both ICT diffusion and globalization in explaining the country level QoG while incorporating gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, human capital, and government expenditure in the context of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nation) region. To this end, we used Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) to analyze panel data from 1984 to 2017. In contrast to research conducted in other countries, our research shows that the impact of ICT diffusion on QoG is not significant in the ASEAN region. The findings can be explained by a lack of coherent ICT-strategy among the countries and a lack of institutional mechanisms to ensure ICT efforts’ effectiveness. However, the relationshi...
The readiness of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in Malaysia for implementing Goods and Services Tax (GST)
Pertanika journal of social science and humanities, 2017
A new taxation system – Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been introduced by the Malaysian governm... more A new taxation system – Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been introduced by the Malaysian government in order to diversify its revenue base. The Royal Malaysian Custom Department (RMCD) which is appointed to collect this revenue is strengthening its capacity. This paper studies the relationship between competency and governance towards GST readiness among 45 owners of a single brand petrol stations in Malaysia. The Theory of Organisational Readiness for Change along with a regression analysis suggested competency and governance of the petrol station owners had a positive significant relationship towards GST readiness.
The United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) singled out corruption as one of the mos... more The United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) singled out corruption as one of the most complex, difficult, and corrosive problems the world faces at present. Corruption undermines fair competition, distorts economic investments, and deprives governments of resources needed for sustainable growth and development. Sustainable development is an integrated approach that promotes economic, social and environmental growths and specifically involves economic sustainability. In business operation, sustainable economic development calls for the effective and efficient use of resources to ensure that a business will be sustained over a number of years while consistently returning profit. Corporations that promote sustainable economic development must initiate measures to mitigate corruption. Similar to other “moral diseases” such as fraud and deceit, corruption is best “prevented than cured.” This study proposes a self-measurement tool, namely, Corporate Integrity Assessment Quest...
Relationship between organizational capabilities, implementation decision on target costing and organisational performance: An empirical study of Malaysian automotive industry
Pertanika journal of social science and humanities, 2018
International Journal of Economics, Management and Accounting, 2017
Due to huge loss in the secondary market during the 2010-2011 stock market crash, small investors... more Due to huge loss in the secondary market during the 2010-2011 stock market crash, small investors in Bangladesh involved themselves in IPO investment. This study, based on secondary data, depicts the IPO market in Bangladesh and also identifies the factors influencing IPO subscription times. The study documented 85% growth in the listed companies on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) through IPO during the last decade with an average number of 14.80 IPOs per year. Fixed price method was followed in most of the IPOs; whereas the book building method was followed in only 2.70% of IPOs. Earnings forecast, a very common phenomenon of IPO prospectus in developed countries, was hardly ever found in the IPO prospectus in Bangladesh. Multiple regression model indicates that market lot has significant positive, whereas EPS and offer price have insignificant negative influence on IPO subscription times. The current study has explored the existing scenario of IPOs in Bangladesh that will help regu...
This paper investigated how management accounting (MA) was applied in a turnaround strategy to re... more This paper investigated how management accounting (MA) was applied in a turnaround strategy to recover from a company’s fragile business position. A case study at a Malaysian company, Care, that went through a turnaround process was conducted to understand how the use of MA contributed to their turnaround process. While an economic downturn is claimed to be the major cause of poor organisational performance, Care was in a financial distress situation before the economic crisis. More importantly, Care successfully recovered their poor condition during the economic downturn with the use of MA techniques. This paper describes the way MA was utilised before, during and after the turnaround process. Prior to the economic crisis, MA was used merely to provide reports with no strategic focus. Failure to manage cost and understand the changes in the market compromised their performance. It is during the turnaround phase that MA information was used to understand the company’s current perfor...
Uploads
Papers by Normah Omar