It has been proposed that the government formulate a Political Parties Act to curb corruption among local politicians.

The chief laboratory of the National Key Result Areas (NKRA) against corruption, Hisham Nordin, said the act was necessary to curb immoral activities.

"For example, in any election, a candidate has to follow what has been decided by the Election Commission (EC) such as on RM100,000 allocation to contest in an election.

"However, we see much is spent on shirts and banners during the election. This is because the money is not from the candidates themselves, but other quarters," he said when tabling the laboratory results at the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) Open Day at the Sunway Convention Centre yesterday.

Hisham, who is also special officer to Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, said the matter was clearly against the regulations set by the EC.

He added that the act was also necessary to prevent abuse of "political funds".

"The term political fund is used to take care of the welfare of the party, but in the end it ends up in their own pockets," he said.

Hisham said the laboratory also suggested other initiatives to fight corruption, which included revealing details of government acquisition, privatisation contracts and disposing of corruption cases within a year.

- Bernama