2. We strengthened review and oversight over budgets and final accounts.

In performing its duty of conducting review and oversight over government budgets and final accounts in accordance with the law, the Standing Committee listened to and deliberated over reports on final accounts, auditing work, and the implementation of budgets, and reviewed and approved the central government’s final accounts for 2013.

We required the State Council and relevant departments to tighten up budgetary management by improving the system of managing all government revenue and expenditure, refining the system of government debt management, and increasing the review and integration of special transfer payments. We also urged relevant authorities to rectify problems discovered in auditing and ensure accountability for them.

Last December, the State Council reported to the Standing Committee on the rectification and handling of problems discovered in auditing. According to the report, audited departments had rectified problems involving a total of 106.25 billion yuan, the amount of funds recovered or prevented from loss totaled 3.39 billion yuan, and 3,122 regulations were made or improved based on suggestions from the auditing bodies.

The Standing Committee attached great importance to and oversaw the allocation and use of government funds for water conservancy. We made suggestions on increasing and effectively allocating government funds on water conservancy, improving the system of integrated water-related management and the mechanism for sharing the cost of conservation and compensating for impact on water ecosystems, and strengthening management of government funded projects and performance- based management. After overseeing the allocation and use of government funds for science and technology in 2013, we again oversaw allocation and use of government funds in a particular area, in a positive effort to strengthen budget oversight by the NPC.

3. We helped provide safeguards for and improve the standard of living.

The social security system affects the most immediate interests of our people; everyone is concerned about what kind of social security benefits they will be able to depend on in their old age.

The Standing Committee listened to and deliberated on the State Council’s report on coordinating efforts to develop urban and rural social security systems, and conducted an inquiry on the issue. We urged relevant government departments to strengthen top-level design, proactively respond to the issue of the aging of the population, improve the system of government spending, divert some state capital to strengthen social security funds, make unified national plans for basic pensions, strengthen supervision and oversight over the investment and operation of social security funds, improve the system for social assistance, and accelerate the formation of a more equitable and sustainable social security system.

Building a new countryside is a historic task in the course of China’s modernization. General Secretary Xi Jinping has said on several occasions, “Rural living standards are the measure of success in our drive toward moderate prosperity in China.”

The Standing Committee has been continuously following up the work regarding agriculture, rural areas, and rural residents. Last year we made promoting the building of a new countryside a topic for our oversight work, and listened to and deliberated on a report concerning this issue. For deep-seated problems hindering agricultural and rural development, we stressed the need to improve the systems and mechanisms for integrating urban and rural development, make the plans for building a new countryside more workable, forward-looking, and inclusive, improve the long-term mechanisms for fiscal and financial support, improve the infrastructure and living environment in rural areas, and comprehensively improve rural basic public services, thereby bringing fundamental changes to rural areas.

In recent years, we have seen the frequent occurrence of accidents involving minors and crimes affecting their safety, an issue which has caused concern among NPC deputies and people from all sectors of society.

In response to this, and with emphasis being placed on the need to protect the safety of minors, the Standing Committee conducted a nationwide inspection of the enforcement of the Law on the Protection of Minors. We pressed for relevant government departments to work together in a coordinated way on this issue, strengthen the protection of minors, crack down on crimes against them in accordance with the law, and create an enabling social environment for caring for and protecting minors.

In addressing judicial irregularities and other problems that have aroused great public concern, the Standing Committee reviewed and deliberated on reports of the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on how to bring judicial and procuratorial activities in line with proper procedures, and urged them to intensify efforts to regulate their activities, improve the credibility of the judiciary, and ensure that people feel justice is served in every case.

At the suggestion of the Standing Committee regarding the above-mentioned reports, the Supreme People’s Court took steps toward improving judicial work by stopping the practice of ranking higher people’s courts, reforming the system of adjudication committees, and standardizing criminal sentencing; while the Supreme People’s Procuratorate worked diligently on implementation of measures, such as the launching of a year-long campaign to better regulate activities in procuratorates all over the country by focusing on eight areas identified for improvement.