Exploring awqāf governance: Preliminary evidence of governance practices and disclosure of two Malaysian Awqāf institutions

Sustainable Awqāf practices and operations of its managing institutions are primarily influenced by the mutawalli's (Awqāf manager's) accountability created in the environment of good governance. The essences of governance, accountability and sustainability are even more central in the Islamic charitable environment like Awqāf as it plays a unique role as a religious and social-based strategic support device to the existing economy. This paper presents empirical evidence on governance disclosure and practices of two separate Malaysian Awqāf institutions with different operational setup (corporatized vs. government platform) by using multiple research techniques comprising interviews and documentation reviews. The findings indicate that essences of governance are observable in both entities. However, huge potential for improvement still remains. Exploiting the different operational setup provides indications of measured responses and indirectly suggests the benefits of running waqf operations on a corporatized platform. The results also provide an appropriate basis for a reality check on the mutawalli's governance disclosure and practices.