Senior Chinese legislators expressed their concern on July 7 over
various unlawful activities which have emerged throughout the
country in executing the central budget.
While reviewing reports of the central budget and audit this
morning, members of the Standing Committee of the National People's
Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, agreed to expose the
illegal activities of certain ministries in the reports.
"I
was shocked when I learned that 36 out of 55 ministries of the
State Council had been found to have embezzled funds," NPC member
Shen Xinsun said.
"However, exposing the malpractice illustrates that the principle
of 'everyone is equal before the law' has been abided by," he
pointed out.
Xu
Jialu, vice-chairman of the NPC, noted that the government should
invoke stiffer penalties to curb the illegal goings-on. "The
government can enlist more professionals to supervise the
implementation of the budget, and it is worthwhile to do so for it
is in the interest of the general public," he continued.
He
suggested bringing in outside auditing agencies to serve as
watchdogs.
Former Minister of Finance Chi Haibing, who is also a member of
NPC, called for a thorough review of the use of funds targeted at
fighting the rampant embezzlement activities.
NPC member Du Yijin said that the National Audit Office should
report its punishments on related persons in various cases to the
NPC Standing Committee.
Other lawmakers expressed their concerns on the performance of
bonds which were used to drive the economic growth because of the
relax administration of bond-funded projects as specified in the
report of the National Audit Office.
Thursday afternoon, Finance Minister Xiang Huaicheng and Li Jinhua,
auditor-general of the National Audit Office, delivered reports on
the central budget and audit to the 16th meeting of the Ninth NPC
Standing Committee.
(People’s Daily)