Cabinet officials to face inquiries

Legislature seeks to increase oversight of government

Beijing: China's top legislature will demand State Council officials to attend its regular legislative sessions to face inquiries and interrogations from legislators, a move to improve supervision of the central government.

"Inquiries and interrogations are legal means by which people's congresses oversee governments, courts and procuratorates," Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), said on Tuesday during his work report.

"This year, we will select some widely concerned issues and hear reports on those issues from relative State Council departments. Main leaders from those departments will be required to listen to suggestions and respond to inquiries and interrogations," he said.

This is the first time the top legislature has included "inquiries and interrogations of State Council officials" in its annual work report.

Experts said the change reflects the legislature's resolution to better supervise the government and get rid of the "rubber-stamp" image given by Western media. In their reports, China's NPC is generally described as weak and obedient especially in the face of a strong government.

Chen Sixi, deputy director of the NPC's internal and judicial affairs committee, said the legislators' power to inquire and interrogate government officials is granted by the Deputy Law.

"Inquiry is mild, but interrogation could be very harsh, usually with criticism," he said. "If legislators are not satisfied, they can keep asking until the officials offer a satisfactory answer."

He said as far as he could remember, no interrogation of State Council officials has been conducted in the past three decades, and inquiries have been very rare, too.

Chen said so far the NPC Standing Committee has not made clear plans on when to conduct such inquiries and interrogations, but "there will definitely be some arrangements as it has been written into the report so explicitly".

According to the work report, the NPC Standing Committee this year plans to hear reports from the State Council in the following sectors: implementation of the central budget, development of the service sector and the culture industry, national food security, medical care reform, road safety management, as well as the protection of migrant workers.

The NPC Standing Committee usually has six legislative sessions a year.

Kong Dan, a NPC deputy from East China's Jiangxi province, said the new practice is encouraging and strengthening the supervision over the government is essential especially when China is facing a growing complicated situation.

The work report of the NPC Standing Committee also said that although the Chinese society is generally harmonious, there are relatively "serious" problems related to employment, social security, income distribution, education, medical care, housing, workplace safety and public security.

The top legislature promised that it would pay more attention to these problems in legislation and supervision work this year.

Top legislator Wu also said on Tuesday that the NPC Standing Committee would ensure the goal of formulating a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics be achieved by the end of this year as scheduled.