ISSN: 2222-6990
Open access
This paper aims to provide administrators with a better understanding of the issue of asset misappropriation in order to provide better ethical practices and governance among public sector employees. Data for this study were gathered from 180 employees of three Malaysian municipal councils. The findings revealed that Municipal Council B faces the greatest risk of asset misappropriation by its employees. Municipal Council A comes next, and Municipal Council C is the least risky. This study contributes greatly to the literature by presenting evidence on the level of likelihood of asset misappropriation in local governments. The results of a survey and an interview disclosed that asset misappropriation was a problem for the selected local governments. The study is conducted on only three Malaysian municipal councils and covered only one form of fraud.
Sarji, A. A. H. (1992). The public service of Malaysian: Some reflections on quality, productivity and discipline. National Printing Department, Kuala Lumpur.
Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. (2014). 2014 Global Fraud Study: Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse. https://www.acfe.com/-/media/files/acfe/pdfs/2014-report-to-nations.ashx
Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. (2022). Occupational Fraud 2022: A Report to the Nations. https://acfepublic.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/2022+Report+to+the+Nations.pdf
Azlee, Z. (2013). How can an average Malaysian address the A-G report? Astro AWANI. https://www.astroawani.com/perspektif/how-can-average-malaysian-address-g-report-23144
Bakri, H. H. M., Mohamed, N., & Said, J. (2017). Mitigating asset misappropriation through integrity and fraud risk elements: Evidence emerging economies. Journal of Financial Crime, 24(2), 242-255. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-04-2016-0024
Chapple, L., Ferguson, C., & Kang, D. (2009). Corporate governance and misappropriation. Journal of Forensic and Investigative Accounting, 1(2), 1-26.
Fadzilah, S. (1989). Accounting in public sector and private sector; where does the twain meet. In International Symposium on Public Sector Accounting & Reporting. 29-30.
Federal Constitution of Malaysia, 1957
Kazemian, S., Said, J., Hady Nia, E. & Vakilifard, H. (2019). Examining fraud risk factors on asset misappropriation: evidence from the Iranian banking industry. Journal of Financial Crime, 26(2), 447-463. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-01-2018-0008
Kennedy, J. P. (2018). Asset misappropriation in small businesses. Journal of Financial Crime, 25(2), 369-383. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-01-2017-0004
KPMG Forensic. Integrity Survey 2008 – 2009.
https://assets.corporatecompliance.org/Portals/1/Users/169/29/60329/KPMG_Integrity-Survey-2008-2009%5b2%5d.pdf
Koomson, T. A. A., Owusu, G. M. Y., Bekoe, R. A. & Oquaye, M. (2020). Determinants of asset misappropriation at the workplace: the moderating role of perceived strength of internal controls. Journal of Financial Crime, 27(4), 1191-1211. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-04-2020-0067
Liff, S. (2007). Managing Government Employees: how to motivate your people, deal with difficult issues and achieve tangible results. AMACOM.
Local Government Act 1976. http://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/mal130371.pdf
Local Government Department. General Question: What are the differences between City Hall, Municipal Council and District Council? https://jkt.kpkt.gov.my/index.php/en/faqs/general-questions
Lokanan, M. E. (2014). How senior managers perpetuate accounting fraud? Lessons for fraud examiners from an instructional case. Journal of Financial Crime, 21(4), 411–423. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-03-2013-0016
Marumoagae, M. C. (2021). The need to adopt preventative measures to combat the misappropriation of retirement fund assets. Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal (PELJ), 24(1), 1–35. https://doi.org/10.17159/1727-3781/2021/v24i0a10732
Moritz, G. (2008). Fraud cases display similarities. Arkansas Business, April, 14.
Phang, S. N. (1997). Financing local government in Malaysia. Universiti of Malaya Press.
Public Complaint Bureau. Laporan Tahunan Biro Pengaduan Awam. https://www.pcb.gov.my/bm/infomedia/penerbitan/laporan-tahunan
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). PwC’s Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey 2022 at https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/forensics/gecsm-2022/pdf/PwC%E2%80%99s-Global-Economic-Crime-and-Fraud-Survey-2022.pdf
Stubbs, W., & Higgins, C. (2014). Integrated reporting and internal mechanisms of change. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 27(7), 1068–1089. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-03-2013-1279
Wells, J. T. (2001). Enemies Within. Journal of Accountancy, 192(6), 31-35. https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2001/dec/enemieswithin.html
In-Text Citation: (Majid et al., 2023)
To Cite this Article: Majid, R. A., Basri, S. A., & Mohamed, N. (2023). Analysing the Potential for Asset Misappropriation in Three Malaysian Municipal Councils. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 13(4), 1352 – 1363.
Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non0-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode