:: MIA Articles of Merit Award on PAIB 2009 ::

I am thankful to Allah, God Almighty for giving me the courage to write an article on "Current Mechanisms and Future Initiatives Shaping Ethical Behaviour of Professional Accountants in Malaysia". The paper was authored by me, Zubir Azhar; Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Kamal Abdul Rahman; and Dr. Sharifah Khadijah Syed Agil.

All in all, UiTM won two prizes - the Silver and Bronze awards respectively. The Professional Accountants in Business (PAIB) Committee organises the competition as a way of selecting suitable articles to be submitted to the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) for the annual "IFAC Articles of Merit".

Associate Professor Dr Huang Ching Choo won the Silver Award and RM3,000 cash prize. Our team won the Bronze Award with cash prize of RM1,500.

MIA: React Now!

I once attended an accounting conference held by one of public higher learning institutions. The event was good in such a way that students are more exposed to real accounting functions. They were required to relate the theories they learned to practical application and "how-to-solve" abilities. The MIA president also attended and gave speech.

However, towards the end of the session, one accounting lecturer stood up and asked a question pertaining to the recognition of accounting graduates from abroad by MIA. What a shocking answer we received! MIA requires them to undertake qualifying exam (QE) to allow them to become professional members. There are many factors that actually allow this to happen, some of them are really pathetic from my point of view. Correct me if I get this wrong. One of the main reasons is MIA has actually prevented or "blocked" the career of many accountants due to its "self-authority". There have been many graduates from oversea, but their certificates are not being recognised by MIA while local certificates are recognised given the fact that the course modules were similar and approved by this body. Many graduates were actually stop progressing any further as registered professional accountants. Most professional organisations in Malaysia use (or "copy and apply") the same accredited system as oversea professional institute in countries.

The strange thing is a registered professional accounting from oversea such as USA, UK, etc. are not recognised by the board, which actually not attracting the talented people to come back to Malaysia. The reason for not recognising the oversea professional institute is pretty vague (until now). According to my friends studying overseas, a number of staff or vice president from different Malaysia professional organisation have been appointed to give a presentation in foreign universities. It eventually ended up as argument, when most Malaysian students were asking questions such as "why not being recognised when same accredited system is applied?" " why it is recognised in Singapore but not Malaysia?" "Why it is recognised in common wealth countries but not Malaysia?". It was a laugh to me when I heard it, no surprising that they gave answers that can't even persuade themselves this is a believable respond.

Hopefully MIA or other professional organisations could make thing effectively and life more easily, not LATER but CHANGE now.

Intersession '09

A short-term interssion course has just begun. 28 accounting students registered for FAR300 (Financial Accounting 5) class. I started FAR300 class yesterday with the introduction to Company Reconstruction, a not too hard topic. Students seemed to well understand and are now preparing for some tutorial questions. Will discuss the progress of the questions attempted with them today at 11.00 am.

Seminar on Audit Quality

Yesterday I, Mrs. Nor Hafizah Abdul Rahman and Miss Leily Adja Radjeman attended a seminar jointly organised by UiTM Malaysia and Malaysian Accountancy Reasearch and Education Foundation (MAREF) supported by MIA. The seminar was officiated by the Chairman of Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Y.B. Datuk Seri Azmi bin Khalid. He later launched a new system for audit community to self-assess their conformance with the International Standard on Quality Control (ISQC 1). The system, known as Audit Quality Rating (AQuR) System, was developed by a team of UiTM researchers headed by Associate Professor Dr. Zuraidah Mohd Sanusi. She then demonstrated the AQuR system to the seminar participants. Congratulations to UiTM!

Accountants Today (December 2008)

This is another professional journal of Accountants Today for December issue.

I wrote on what techniques do service organisations use in their managerial functions and how do they enhance their management accounting practices to achieve better business results. Take a look!

A cheque of RM500.00 I received recently for an article I contributed to MIA last year. Thanks to MIA and Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Kamal Abdul Rahman for their brilliant helps.

Accountants Today (June 2008)

A collection of my Accountants Today distributed by MIA every month to its members.

An article of mine (written with Prof. Dr. Normah Hj. Omar) had been accepted in last year's issue (June 2008). Please refer to pages 20-22.