An Empirical Investigation on Annual Reporting Practices of Malaysian State Islamic Religious Councils: Issues and Challenges

Abstract

This paper aims to evaluate the extent and quality of disclosure of annual report and to investigate in-depth explanation on the obtained evaluation. Specifically, semi-structured interviews are conducted to address the reasons/constraints of such disclosure/non-disclosure and for not preparing an annual report. This study found that there are external and internal problems in preparing annual reports; where it was inferred that the internal problems are more serious. The former consists of lack of enforcement and reporting guidelines, whereas the latter includes attitudes of top management, lack of staff, difficulties in preparing annual reports and transformation of SIRC organisations. However, such a lack of enforcement is the main reason for the inconsistency of the annual report disclosure of some SIRC and its total absence from others. This was highlighted by majority of the interviewees. Despite of those problems, most of the SIRC’s accountants claim that they are becoming more active in issuing annual reports. It seems advantageous to address those issues and challenges and SIRC should consider producing a comprehensive annual report for the discharge of their accountability and thus, encourage more funding. They should be more transparent to enhance accessibility, concerning the extent and quality of the disclosure.Consequently, this study was able to make empirical contributions to the literature, and particularly to the practice and knowledge of this type of institutional accounting.