In Beijing, the total number of officials under supervision increased from 210,000 before the reform to 997,000 as of December 2017, Zhang Shuofu, head of the city's supervisory commission, told Xinhua.
What's the deliberation process?
Tracking the progress of a law in any country is a complicated task – discussion, redrafts and votes are common practice. Preparing the groundwork for China's proposed supervision law has required additional procedure, including changes to the Constitution.
The foundations for the implementation of the proposed law were laid by the NPC on Sunday, when deputies voted to include supervisory commissions as a state organ in the Constitution. Eleven of the 21 amendments backed by the NPC on Sunday related to supervisory commissions.
A further step was announced on Tuesday, when an institutional restructuring plan was put forward by the State Council. The Ministry of Supervision and National Bureau of Corruption Prevention would be merged into a National Supervisory Commission, under the draft plan on which a vote is scheduled on Saturday.
The final stages of the establishment of the new system will take place over the coming days at the first session of the 13th NPC, culminating in a vote scheduled for March 20.
NPC steps
March 13 (a.m.): Draft law presented at NPC.
March 13 (p.m.): Delegations deliberate on draft law.
March 14: Small group deliberations on draft law.
Law revised based on the recommendations.
March 16: Delegations deliberate revised draft.
March 19: Delegations deliberate voting version of revised draft.
March 20: NPC votes on final draft.
Why is the new law being proposed?
The new supervision law is designed to cut inefficiency and enhance the CPC's leadership over supervision.
Under the old system, the Party disciplinary network oversaw all CPC members while administrative supervisory agencies governed civil servants.
"In the face of a tough and complicated situation, our existing supervisory institutions were clearly unable to meet the demands of the battle against corruption and the campaign to clean up the Party," Xinhua quoted Li Jianguo, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the 12th NPC, as saying on Tuesday.
Since 80 percent of civil servants and 95 percent of leading officials are Party members, the tasks of CPC inspection and state supervision highly overlap, Li added
The supervisory power was also divided among three agencies, with the Party disciplinary agencies regulating Party members according to Party rules, administrative supervisory agencies watching civil servants according to the administrative supervision law, and procuratorates prosecuting state functionaries suspected of corruption according to the criminal procedure law.
"The agencies, with their power divided and overlapping, did not function in harmony," Li said, adding that procuratorates, which not only investigate but also prosecute, were not under effective supervision.
Under the reform, supervision, corruption control and prevention divisions under the government and procuratorates would be merged, pooling anti-graft resources.
(With input from Xinhua)
