The recent spate of publicity over monthly claims made by certain members of parliament has aroused interest as to their legal entitlements.

Newspapers reported today that 14 MPs are to be questioned by the Anti-Corruption Agency for allegedly filing claims exceeding RM10,000 a month last year.

MPs are guided by Section 5 of the Members of Parliament Act (Allowance) 1980, which itemises their allowances and perks. In some cases, these are equivalent to what Class A civil servants may claim.

These state the amounts allowed as well as when receipts have to submitted together with the claims.

Based on the main items of expenditure, veteran DAP leader Lim Kit Siang worked out that legitimate "meeting claims" incurred during an average of 19 days of attending Dewan Rakyat sessions would amount to RM10,270.

During this period, MPs are allowed two extra days each week to arrive in and leave from Kuala Lumpur.

'Laughing stock'

In a recent press statement, he called for action against those who abuse 'non-meeting' claims as this has led to Parliament becoming the "laughing stock" of the country.

Using the same duration of duty at the Dewan Rakyat, malaysiakini worked out what an MP might be able to claim by way of both 'meeting' and 'non-meeting' expenses. (See table)

A number of significant variable were excluded, such as the amount allotted for adding telephone calls, laundry and mileage claims.

If mileage claims had been included, say from Kota Baru to Kuala Lumpur (60 sen/km for 600 km) four times a week, this would have added RM2,880 to the total.