Political funds should be kept in party accounts, insists Paul Low

Datuk Seri Najib Razak's personal bank account at Ambank is said to have received some US$700 million, which the Umno president says is donation from the Middle East for his party.– The Malaysian Insider file pic, August 11, 2015.

Political funds should only be deposited into party accounts instead of personal accounts of leaders, insisted Datuk Paul Low, the minister in charge of governance and integrity, as debate rages on the US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) "donation" in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's personal accounts.

Malay-language daily Sinar Harian quoted the minister in the Prime Minister's Department as saying that legislation on political funding is needed to ensure transparency and to prevent donors from demanding "compensation".

"Political parties can obtain funds in various ways including membership, donation drive, public funding and corporate funding. We can allow corporations to donate to parties but it must be revealed because the public needs to know.

"We also need to ensure the funds are not channelled to personal accounts, it must be deposited into party's accounts because if it is banked into personal accounts, it will be hard to take responsibility," he told the Malay daily in an interview published today.

On Saturday, Najib, the Umno president, claimed he was cleared by the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) over the RM2.6 billion in his personal accounts, which he said was being kept for Umno and not for his personal use.

MACC had announced that the money is not from troubled state firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), but came from a Middle Eastern donor.

Allegations of RM2.6 billion in Najib's accounts first surfaced in a report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on July 2, citing documents from Malaysian investigators.

WSJ said the source of the funds was unknown, but came through 1MDB-linked entities in various tranches, the largest of which – US$681 million – was channelled to Najib's accounts in March 2013, ahead of the general election in May that year.

A few of Najib's Cabinet members had previously said that there was nothing wrong in money being funnelled into his personal accounts as he was a trustee for Umno.

Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor had said yesterday it was a common practice for the head of any political parties to hold funds on behalf of the party.

The uproar over the funds in Najib's personal accounts had led to suggestion that a political funding law be enacted.

Low (pic, left) told Sinar Harian that both politicians and the public are ready for such legislation and that Putrajaya is hoping to table it in Parliament as soon as possible.

"When I was in TI-M (Transparency International - Malaysia), we tried to come up with regulations on political funding. It was hard, a lot of problem. But today, based on discussions with politicians and the public showed that they are ready.

"So we have to study this. To ensure we come up with the right framework to ensure inappropriate funds are not channelled into political parties," Low said.

- TMI