Public pressure has put a draft law on supervision of administrative and judicial bodies high on the agenda of national legislators.

Deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC) have proposed the law which will beef up supervision of the performance of key offices by granting additional powers to people's congresses at national and local levels.

More than 80 motions have been lodged on the need for supervision since 1987, according to Wang Shihu, vice-director of the Commission of Legislative Affairs of the NPC Standing Committee.

It was submitted to the 29th session of the NPC Standing Committee, which opened Friday, for preliminary reading.

The nation's Constitution stipulates that people's congresses, at national and local levels, are entitled to supervise the performance of laws and oversee the work of administrative and judicial bodies.

This would be done through examining their plans and budgets, reviewing their work reports, raising enquiries and conducting investigations on specific issues.

The draft legislation has made specific regulations on the range and procedures of supervision as well as the fashion in which it is conducted, said Wang Weicheng, director of the NPC Law Committee.

"The promulgation of such a law will improve China's democratic supervisory mechanism and promote the governing of the state by law,'' said Wang Weicheng.

According to China's Constitution, overseeing the work of all administrative, judicial and procuratorial organs of China is one of the principal tasks of the NPC and its Standing Committee.

"Even though the Constitution has laid down the basic principles, there is still no specific law to guide the national and local people's congresses,'' said Wang Weicheng.

Wang added: "The law on supervision will provide a detailed legal basis for facilitating their work.''

With regard to the supervision of the enforcement of the Constitution and laws, the draft states that the NPC has the right to alter or overturn inappropriate decisions or laws made by its Standing Committee.

With respect to the supervision of the work of central or local governments and judicial organs and procuratorates, the law clearly states that the supervisory power should be exercised properly.

People's congresses and their standing committees should supervise rather than interfere in the work of the government, the courts and the procuratorates, acting within the limits of their own mandates.

The bi-monthly session of the top legislature will discuss another 11 draft legislations, including draft laws on administrative license and stock funds.

The lawmakers are also expected to ratify the Charter for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and an extradition agreement between China and the Laos.

The draft law on administrative license, proposed by the State Council, is designed to increase administrative efficiency and check a major source of corruption.

Problems such as excessive use of licensing, over-elaborate procedures, poor efficiency and insufficient supervision after a license has been granted are hampering the healthy development of administrative permission, according to Yang Jingyu, director of the Legislative Affairs Office under the State Council.

Yang said it was also drafted to honor China's commitments to the World Trade Organization, which requires administrative permission in all its member economies be conducted in a transparent and standard way.

China's working group has raised nine clear-cut requirements for administrative permission procedures in the service trade, Yang added.

The draft law on stock funds will oversee all registration and activities of investment companies that run stock funds.

Stock funds are mainly mutual funds that invest primarily in stocks and are operated by investment companies.

The draft legislation includes stipulations that standardize the operation of investment companies and check for irregularities such as opaque operations and late disclosures of information.

(China Daily August 23, 2002)