Deputies to the ongoing first session of the 10th Guangdong Provincial People's Congress have been given a new insight into the workings of the provincial government.
The revelations came in a blue-covered, three-centimeter-thick financial budget volume passed out to each of them.
Every volume included the financial budgets submitted from 102 departments of the provincial government, covering a total of 22 billion yuan (US$2.6 billion) and awaiting discussion.
Wang Zehua, a deputy to the eighth, ninth and 10th provincial people's congresses of South China's Guangdong Province, said the provincial government's financial budget had become more transparent.
He remembered it was only two years ago that the provincial government for the first time submitted a financial budget program. At that time, the financial budget program only consisted of several pages and was submitted by just seven sectors of the provincial government. Last year, the financial budget program included 27 sectors of the government.
But this year the financial budget program included the provincial government's 102 different sectors and expenditure of 22 billion yuan (US$2.6 billion). "It is indeed a big progress," Wang said.
Not only was the budget book thicker, but the number of bills submitted by deputies also grew.
More than 780 deputies from the province's 124 counties and cities submitted a total of 276 bills - 45 more than last congress. According to congress staff, most of the bills were concerned with agricultural problems and farmer's difficulties.
Deputy Hong Songzhou said the increasing number of bills demonstrated that the judgment and the enthusiasm of deputies were evolving.
Owing to the deputies' keen and capable work, the congress had intensified the supervision of the provincial government, the provincial higher people's court and the provincial higher people's procuratorate.
According to the work report delivered by Zhang Guoying, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Congress, the congress evaluated the five-year performance of 28 directors of provincial government departments, four vice-presidents of the provincial higher people's court and four deputy procurator-generals.
During the congress, deputies discussed traditional topics such as the fight against corruption, social security, balanced regional economic developments and the overall Pearl River Delta economic development program. They also considered many current issues, including the future of the country's private enterprises, economic co-operation with Hong Kong and Macao and local legal system improvements.
(China Daily January 22, 2003)
