BEIJING -- The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, on Tuesday started deliberating a draft law on graft busters as part of efforts to deepen reform of the country's anti-corruption system.

The draft "supervisors" law, under first reading at the legislature, is expected to standardize the selection and appointment of anti-graft personnel, in addition to their functions, duties, management and oversight.

China in 2018 enacted the Supervision Law and established supervision commissions at national, provincial, prefectural and county levels to integrate anti-corruption functions and personnel that had previously been scattered in related judicial and administrative organs, as well as in the disciplinary watchdogs of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

The commissions have the power to investigate conduct involving the abuse of public office and hand out administrative sanctions. They can hand over public sector employees to the prosecutors in the case of suspected job-related crimes.

The draft has stipulated the CPC's leadership over the supervisor system.

Specifying the requirements for supervisors to perform duties, the draft is expected to further define their jurisdiction and strengthen their self-discipline and external oversight, thus helping ensure that the supervisory power is properly exercised.

In addition to general and supplementary provisions, the draft has seven chapters, including one on the appraisal policies and another that deals with how the supervisors shall be overseen and how they shall be punished if they abuse supervisory power.