Accountability for zakat disbursement an exploratory study of empowerment schemes in zakat institutions

Abstract

Zakat empowerment scheme is a disbursement method of facilitating engagement of zakat beneficiaries in gainful economic activities through funding of skill acquisition and provision of relevant tools or machine. Unfortunately, the use of this method fell into disuse due to a long period of departure of Muslims from pristine tenets of zakat as a result of colonization of Muslim lands. As a way out of ravaging poverty, Pakistan revived this method in 2001 and it is being experimented by two other countries in Southeast Asia. Zakat is a multidimensional tool, therefore, this study, a synthesis of literature on zakat, stakeholders’ theory, concepts and dimensions of accountability and empowerment as well as management and task controls aimed at identifying the stakeholders of the new Zakat disbursement strategy and understanding its control mechanisms and the influence of the stakeholders on these controls. The methodology of a Cross-sectional field study was adopted to study the empowerment schemes in the Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS) and Lembaga Zakat Selangor (LZS) due to paucity of adopters of the scheme. Despite this limitation, the study was able to identify and categorize stakeholders of empowerment schemes in the two institutions; understand the control mechanisms of the scheme and the influence of stakeholders on the scheme. The findings of this study should give a positive impact on the management of zakat beneficiaries by the institutions. Again, being the first attempt to study accountability practices in Zakat institution using the stakeholders’ theory, the study has opened a new dimension to the study of Zakat as a social institution and, in a way, added to the body of accounting knowledge.