China's National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature body, has approved the pilot reform program to create a new, powerful disciplinary organ in renewed efforts to fight corruption.
The NPC Standing Committee approved the program to create a supervision system that will be more independent and authoritative.
The Supervision Committee will integrate the power and duty of two government departments - the supervision department and the corruption prevention department - with part of the procuratorate for handling bribery and dereliction of duty cases or prevention of duty-related crimes, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
The new committee will be under supervision of the local people's congresses, the legislature, which will also be in charge of staffing the committee.
Observers said this means China's legislature will for the first time have disciplinary power.
According to the pilot program, the new supervision committees will be formed in Beijing and the provinces of Shanxi and Zhejiang.
"A major point of this reform is that the supervision committee will now have the power to investigate not only public servants from the administrative branch, but also the courts, prosecutors offices, legislative bodies, and State-owned enterprises," Jiang Ming'an, a law professor from Peking University, told the Global Times.
"With expanded power, the status of supervision bodies will also rise in the political hierarchy," he said.
Over a million officials have been punished in recent years in the anti-graft drive launched by President Xi Jinping.
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