THE Beijing Municipal People's Congress has taken a step forward in supervising local government spending.
Local lawmakers reported that since the passage in January of the Regulation on the Supervision of the Budget of the City of Beijing, municipal officials had been more careful in spending central government money.
'Supervising the Budget of the Government is a first major step in supervising the overall work of the Government,' Xinhua yesterday quoted municipal legislator Gong Shuji as saying.
Other lawmakers said it was because of lax laws and inadequate supervision that ousted party secretary of Beijing Chen Xitong and other corrupt officials were able to divert official funds for private use.
According to the regulation, legislators could scrutinise the budgets of all municipal government units.
Xinhua said they had proposed a number of ways to cut spending.