Search results

Remote sensing data and GIS techniques have been used to create thematic maps for assessment and estimation of landslide hazards, in Pos Slim‐Cameron Highlands area, Peninsula Malaysia. The Landsat TM5 scene was used to extract land use parameter of the study area. The digital elevation model (DEM) was generated from digitised topographic maps to produce slope risk map, aspect risk map and height risk map. From these data, a simple algorithm is created to classify the area into different risk zones. By overlaying all hazard maps, a final hazard map is produced. The integration of GIS with remotely sensed data might greatly facilitate classifying landslide areas to three categories; low risk, medium risk and high risk.

This study aims to understand the member countries’ current asset recovery mechanism based on two elements, namely, confiscation policy and asset recovery management framework.

Content analysis was performed on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) of eight countries.

The result showed that only a few countries established a centralised asset recovery centre or special task force to manage recovered assets.

This study is limited to information mentioned in the FATF MER.

This study highlights the need to have a centralised asset recovery management centre as an initiative to improve the outcome of money laundering investigations. The study findings will benefit regulators to understand further the practical challenges of the asset recovery mechanism for future improvement.

FATF recommends that each country establish a centralised asset recovery centre and work closely with the investigating officers and prosecutors in deciding on assets confiscation. However, the implementation is contingent on their local environment and resources at the member countries’ discretion. Therefore, this study aimed to understand the member countries’ current asset recovery mechanism based on two elements, namely confiscation policy and asset recovery management framework.

Money laundering offences occur worldwide, with recent discussions involving issues related to the low levels of compliance among professional accountants towards the anti-money laundering (AML) regime. Under the regime, professional accountants are required to implement compliance programs (Know Your Customer, Clients Due Diligent, Record Keeping) and to submit any suspicious transaction report encounters to the authorities. Due to the lack of research in this sector, this study aims to examine the compliance determinants towards AML regimes among professional accountants in Malaysia.

Premised on protection motivation theory, a questionnaire was developed and distributed among 1,100 professional accountants. Of which 275 questionnaires were returned and subjected to regression analysis.

Based on the findings, “perceived risk of non-compliance” and “awareness of Anti-Money Laundering Act 2001 and Financial Action Task Force standard” were significantly related to the level of compliance towards the AML regimes. Meanwhile, “compliance cost” did not influence the compliance behaviour of professional accountants. Moreover, the findings demonstrated that awareness programs among the reporting institutions should be enhanced, specifically the professional accountants.

This study recommends the professional bodies particularly professional accountants in Malaysia to establish a blueprint as a guideline for money laundering reporting.

This is one of the pioneer studies looking into AML compliance determinants among the professional accountants in Malaysia. This study will provide insights on the current practices and recommend ways to improve the current AML reporting practices among the professional accountants.

This paper aims to conduct a comparison on the effectiveness of the law enforcement agencies (LEAs) of Australia and Malaysia in investigating money laundering cases by looking into the legal system and operational issues faced in conducting the investigation.

The purpose of this paper is to review and analyze the data collected from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Mutual Evaluation Report, focusing on the information outlined in the third chapter. The legal system and operational issues cover the area of technical compliance and effectiveness compliance, which were introduced in the latest FATF Evaluation Methodology issued in 2013.

The results show that both countries have the power needed to investigate money laundering and terrorism financing under their respective Anti-Money Laundering Act. However, Australia is seen to have a better investigative support system to assist LEAs during the investigation process. This explains the reason for difficulties in increasing the number of prosecutions for money laundering and terrorism financing cases. Hence, improvement actions are needed in curbing this issue.

The result suggests that Malaysia should strengthen the cooperation, coordination and capacity among LEAs to ensure effective targeting, investigation and prosecution of money laundering. The government should also revise the money laundering investigation time frame and broaden the power of LEAs in retrieving information during the investigation process. Malaysia should also enhance the investigative support system, which will be helpful for LEAs in gathering sufficient evidence to support their money laundering charges. Unlimited power in gathering evidence is prominent to charge money launders as it helps to gather information required for prosecution.

Prior literature focuses on the prevention mechanism, where this paper aims to focus on detection and investigation mechanism focusing on money laundering investigation conducted by LEAs. Lack of study on money laundering investigation calls for this research to be done to understand the strengths and weaknesses to improve its effectiveness in the future.

Malaysia has implemented a comprehensive AML/CFT framework, yet its effectiveness remains questionable due to low number of prosecutions on money laundering cases. Therefore, this study aims to understand the reasons for low number of prosecutions, by addressing the challenges faced by the law enforcement agencies in conducting money laundering investigation. This study then identifies future improvement actions to enhance their effectiveness in combating money laundering in future.

This study distributed surveys to the law enforcement agencies that are responsible for conducting money laundering investigation in Malaysia. In total, 65 surveys were distributed; however, only 61 were returned to the researchers. Out of the 61 surveys returned, only 39 can be analysed due to incomplete answers given by respective respondents.

The results show that the investigating officers are facing difficulties in gathering sufficient information to support their charges. Besides information gathering, they are also facing difficulties due to short investigation timeframe regulated in the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act (AMLATFPUAA) 2001. This study concludes that, although the law enforcement agencies have the power to investigate money laundering and terrorism financing under the act, Malaysia is lacking in having a good investigative support system to assist the law enforcement agencies during the investigation process.

The results of this study are helpful to the regulators and law enforcement agencies in determining the flaws of the current money laundering investigation practices. This study also provides suggestions for future improvement action.

Lack of study focuses on money laundering investigation conducted by the law enforcement agencies, especially in the Malaysian setting, makes the study valuable to the money laundering research.

This study aims to discuss the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Special Recommendation IX (SR IX) and the importance of complying with the recommendation, which focuses on cross-border declaration or disclosure with the objective to detect and prevent illicit cross-border transportation of cash and bearer negotiable instruments (BNIs). This study also looks into compliance ratings of Asia Pacific Group (APG) 40 countries on the FATF SR IX.

This study reviews the mutual evaluation reports issued by APG on money laundering from 2006 to 2012. Based on the mutual evaluation reports, this study also looks into recommendations and comments given by respective panels. The compliance ratings together with panel’s recommendations and comments compiled in this study will be helpful to relevant authorities for future improvement.

Complying to FATF SR IX helps relevant authorities in detecting and preventing illicit from cross-border transportation of cash and BNIs. Out of 40, only two countries received compliant rating, which shows the need of improvement to ensure that the country is compliant on FATF SR IX.

This study is limited to the panel’s reviews and recommendations on mutual evaluation report and only focuses on FATF SR IX.

This paper analyzes the compliance characteristics of countries based on their FATF mutual evaluation report. It highlights the comments and recommendation for future improvement to ensure that these countries will comply with FATF SR IX.

This paper aims to examine whether individual factors (religiosity and ethical values) and organizational factors (ethical leadership and whistleblowing practices) contribute to employee fraud mitigation.

Guided by Corporate Integrity System Malaysia, this study developed and collected 101-questionnaire survey from Royal Custom officers.

The findings revealed that individual factors (religiosity and ethical values) significantly contribute to fraud reduction, and organizational factors (both ethical leadership and whistle blowing practices) do not significantly contribute to employee fraud mitigation.

This study serves as a useful guide to alert and educate employers, professionals, law enforcement officers and policymakers of the importance of individual and organizational factors in mitigating employee fraud. There is very little empirical research conducted on employee fraud in Malaysia. This research helps bring that to light.

The purpose of this study is to present an analysis of the Islamic good governance concept and means known as Al-Siyasah Al-Syar’iyyah as a principle and approach for combating corruption. This literature review aims to synthesize extant literature that discusses the determinants of integrity and how to prevent and combat corruption based on the Al-Siyasah Al-Syar’iyyah perspective.

A systematic search was conducted on a literature review based on Scopus and referred journals from Google Scholar databases. A manual search on Google Scholar was performed to identify additional relevant studies. Studies were selected based on the predetermined criteria. They were thematically examined using content analysis.

The study found that most of the 45 works of the literature, (41 studies and four chapters) suggested that corruption should be considered a sin and that education of Al-Siyasah Al-Syar’iyyah’s perspective against corruption, emphasizing the principle of piety, the institutionalization of justice and accountability, good governance performance with an emphasis on its belief in self-accountability and justice, is the means to combat corruption.

This study is unique in that it focuses on locating material on battling corruption from the standpoint of Al-Siyasah Al-Syar’iyyah. Based on the al-Quran, the Sunnah and the best practices of Muslim rulership, this notion provides an epistemological, ethical and ontological stance in Islam.

This study aims to examine the factors influencing the effectiveness of zakat distribution to university students. Specifically, it examines technology improvement, procedural application and governance on Sarawak university students’ zakat distribution effectiveness.

This study used the questionnaire as a research instrument and divided it into five parts. Part A gathers demographic information of respondents. Part B measures the respondent’s opinion on current technology improvement. Part C measures university students’ opinion on zakat application procedures. Part D measures the governance concept of the zakat institution. Part E measures the effectiveness of zakat distribution.

This study found technology improvement and governance significantly influence the effectiveness of zakat distribution to university students. This study provides no significant influence of the procedural application on zakat distribution’s efficacy to university students.

This study suggested that technology plays an essential role in zakat distribution effectiveness by providing faster data processing, easier retrieval of information and time reduction to complete a task. The enforcement of good governance by zakat institutions allows them to be competitive, meets the stakeholders’ demand and serves them better.

This study provides understanding to the zakat institutions in developing appropriate zakat distribution strategies and strengthening their management and governance system.

This paper integrates technology improvement, procedural application and governance in zakat distribution.

This paper aims to describe the development of the ethical values disclosure index (EVDi) for Malaysian companies using the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 and isomorphism perspectives.

This paper reports an inclusive examination of international and national guidelines in relation to the code of ethics and ethical values in making the disclosure.

The final 10 categories and 40 items under review have been developed in an instrument, the proposed EVDi, for measuring the commitment undertaken by companies in communicating ethical values information to stakeholders.

The EVDi may fulfil the function of good governance to inculcate ethical work culture throughout companies.

Effective ethical values in communication may reduce the likelihood of illegal activities and cost of acting unethically in organisations.

The value of this paper is its approach of using the isomorphism concept from the institutional theory to address the SDG 16 by developing the EVDi. The new index incorporates core elements of moral values adapted mainly from the professional bodies that regulate the accounting profession and other related organisations. The index is an initiative used to measure companies' commitment to promoting ethical values through disclosure. The efforts to measure the level of commitment supporting the SDG 16 promote effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels.