China's legislators in Beijing yesterday voted in favor of
amendments to the Audit Law. The amended law, which comes into
effect on June 1, aims to boost the country's efforts to clean up
government administration.
The four-day 20th meeting of the 10th National People's Congress
(NPC)
Standing Committee concluded yesterday,
Amendments to the law, which was passed in August 1994, were
reviewed twice by the NPC Standing Committee. The amendments were
made with the aim of "safeguarding the state's financial and
economic order and improving the efficiency of the state budgetary
fund."
Governments above county level are now required by law to
provide auditing reports each year to the NPC.
The amended legislation also stipulates that governments should
report on how they correct irregularities that might be found in
auditing reports, according to Jiang Qiangui, vice-chairwoman of
the Law Committee of the 10th NPC.
Jiang regarded the new requirement as important and necessary,
given the fact that in the past some government departments merely
"reported the problem", but failed to give the public any
information on how that problem was addressed.
The amendment enlarges the scope of audits and increase
auditors' law enforcement rights.
In the past, only state-owned enterprises fell within the
auditing scope so as to guarantee that state assets would not be
abused. The new law includes state holding companies and financial
institutions.
The NPC Standing Committee also ratified yesterday the
International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of
Terrorism.
The convention spells out the definition of "terrorism financing
crimes" and urges all signatory countries to prevent and fight
these crimes through legislative, judicial and financial
supervision means.
The convention gives signatory countries the power to charge
those who are involved in financing terrorism. It also regulates
international cooperation on repatriation and the provision of
criminal judicial assistance among signatory countries, and sets
out dispute resolution measures among signatory countries.
(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency March 1, 2006)