BEIJING, June 25 (Reuters) - Chinese Finance Ministry officials found themselves in a new position this week when they defended the national budget to a session of the legislature.
Senior officials from the Ministry of Finance and National Audit Office addressed six sub-groups of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, answering questions about the 2009 budget, state media said.
State-run Xinhua news agency hailed the formal question and answer session as "an unprecedented fiscal inquiry" and "a bid to improve supervision of the central government".
Questions focused on how $136 billion in central government funds were spent last year, the China Daily said, citing Gao Qiang, director of the budgetary affairs commission of the Standing Committee.
"Gao said some of the questions could have been considered harsh, but it showed that legislators were taking the issues seriously," the China Daily reported.
Appointed delegates to the National People’s Congress meet in full only once a year, earning themselves the epithet "rubber-stamp Parliament".
But the NPC occasionally shows stirrings of independence, for instance by withholding votes of approval for particularly controversial appointees or bills submitted by the government, which is run by the Communist Party.
At the conclusion of the annual NPC session in March, 317 of the 2,891 delegates voted against the 2009 budget, and 116 abstained.
