KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 3): Electoral watchdog Bersih has welcomed the government’s move to reduce the outright grant for Members of Parliaments (MPs) from RM3.5 million to RM1 million.

In a statement on Friday (Feb 3), Bersih chairman Thomas Fann said MPs should not act as constituency welfare or development officers as well as carrying out their primary duty as a lawmaker.

“If there are genuine welfare or development needs within their constituencies, they could still bring it to the attention of the relevant authorities instead of overseeing the application and implementation of these local projects,” said Fann.

This came after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim confirmed on Friday (Feb 3) that development allowance for MPs had been cut to RM1.3 million from RM3.8 million, to better control the country's finances, and this will be implemented in stages. The government will consider extending additional allocations if there is an urgent need in a particular constituency.

Note that the 1.3 million development allowance consists of a RM1 million outright grant and another RM300,000 allocation for service centre operations.

“While we welcome this move, we wonder if opposition MPs are also given equal allocations?” Fann asked, saying that it would be inconsistent with Anwar's vision of Malaysia Madani if opposition MPs are excluded from these allocations.

“We need to start respecting the fact that opposition MPs are also elected by voters and deserve similar treatment as government MPs.

“We believe that elected representatives should be adequately remunerated and they should not be concerned about finding additional income to support their families and staff. If we underpay them, some workers [will] be tempted to derive more funding through illegal and unethical means and taxpayers would end up paying more,” he explained.

https://www.theedgemarkets.com/node/654051