Social reform group Aliran expressed shock that government documents and minutes of the previous Barisan Nasional government in Penang had gone missing.

"All records of projects - completed or on-going - approved by the previous government were missing," said the group in a statement today.

"It is obvious that all these important documents were deliberately removed by BN exco members from their offices following their defeat. This conduct is unbecoming of the previously elected officials," said Aliran.

Aliran also called on Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to direct his officials to behave honourably and return the documents to the present state government.

Besides Penang, news of missing or destroyed documents were also reported by the newly appointed MBs in Kedah and Selangor.

Bare cabinets in Kedah

It was earlier reported that newly elected Kedah Menteri Besar Azizan Abdul Razak had complained that "the cabinet in his new office was devoid of files and documents".

Yesterday, former Kedah MB Mahdzir Khalid explained to Bernama that all the project and executive files were kept by the respective departments.

Although, Azizan was said to be satisfied with his predecessor's answer, he did not rule out filing any police reports.

In Selangor, newly elected Kg Tunku assemblyman Lau Weng San lodged a report last Thursday, requesting the police to investigate whether Selangor state government documents had been destroyed.

Lau said that he was concerned that certain files were shredded before the newly-formed state government of PKR-DAP-PAS could take over.