Plenary Lecture
Firms Connection with Government: Does Corporate Governance Matters?
Associate Professor Romlah Jaffar
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Malaysia
E-mail: romlah@ukm.my
Abstract: One important lesson learned from Asia economic crisis during late 1990’s was the importance of good governance in managing a business corporation. The immediate reaction by the Malaysia government was to develop rules and regulations to assure that Malaysian corporation have the right governance mechanism in place. The Malaysia Code of Corporate Governance (MCCG) was launch in 2001. The code codified the principles and best practices of good governance and described optimal corporate governance (CG) structures and internal processes that a business entity should uphold. About the same period, the Minority Shareholder Watchdog Group (MSWG) was established as a government initiative to protect the interests of minority shareholders through shareholder activism. It hopes to discipline the capital market and to encourage good governance amongst public listed companies and increase the shareholder value. In a different platform, the government has also established the National Integrity Plan (NIP) and Malaysia Institute of Integrity (IIM) with the aim of achieving economic progress that is consistent with good personal values and ethical corporate conduct.
The Malaysian government, as any other governments in the emerging economy, participates actively in the operation of business entities. Even after the privatization exercise, the government has continued to have significant role and ownership in the private companies. With a number of rules and regulations implemented by the government to enhance corporate governance measure, this study expects to find high level of CG mechanisms in firms connected with the government. Specifically, this paper examines the level of corporate governance mechanism implemented in companies connected with the ruling government and whether its participation has any implication in the companies’ value. The findings of study would give an insight of the nature of governance mechanism specifically in firms connected with government and how element of governance can be improved in these firms.
Brief Biography of the Speaker: Romlah Jaffar starts her academic career at the Faculty of Economics and Management of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in 1991. She obtained her Bachelor of Science (Accounting) from San Diego State University, MBA (Accounting) and DBA (Accounting) from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Her main research areas are in social and environmental reporting, quality of reporting and corporate governance. Romlah is also an editor for a number of internationally recognized academic journals, inside and outside of the country. Currently, Romlah involves in a few research projects awarded by the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia, UKM, Malaysian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (MICPA) and International Association for Accounting Education and Research (IAAER). Additionally, Romlah contributes in the development and evaluation of accounting program in the country. She has been appointed by Ministry of Higher Education as a main committee member for the evaluation and development of current Bachelor of Accounting curriculum for institute of higher learning in Malaysia (Hala Tuju 2). She is also a panel of Malaysia Qualification Agency (MQA) that actively involved in the accreditation of accounting program in private institution of Malaysia.