An anti-corruption agency is seeking to toughen up the Integrity Pact, a measure designed by Transparency International to prevent corruption in public contracting.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) drafted a bill that would require all ministries and bidders to make binding commitments pledging not to request or accept bribes when signing public contracts.

Under the proposal, contracts would be cancelled if bidders are found to be involved in bribery with officials in charge of public contracting.

The ACRC bill would also make a list of bidders found to have been involved with bribery available on the official ministry websites as well as that of the ACRC.

Ministries would be asked to consider bidders" past records in the integrity pact when reviewing applications for public contracting.

The ACRC submitted the draft to Rep. Koh Seung-duk of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) last week.

The submission came weeks after Koh called on the watchdog to come up with measures to uproot corruptive practices in public contracting during the National Assembly inspection held in October.

A few ministries had previously introduced a non-binding version of the Integrity Pact, but it proved unhelpful in reducing the corrupt practice.

Of 3,624 public contracts uploaded into the government"s e-procurement system last year, Koh said that only one was cancelled after a bidder was found to have offered bribes to government officials.

He hinted that there could be more public contracts have been tainted by corruption.

"If the pact becomes mandatory and binding, more corrupt public contracts will be cancelled," Koh said.

To take effect, the bill must win a majority vote in the National Assembly