SHANGHAI is setting up a supervisory committee to provide better oversight of the city's pension fund, officials said yesterday. The Municipal Bureau of Labor and Social Security said the 20-member group would be the first of its kind in China by encouraging participation from community representatives. It is scheduled to begin work before the end of the year. A bureau source said some local members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top advisory agency, will join the committee, along with representatives of the Shanghai People's Congress and other "well-known" public figures. The city has been strengthening management of its pension fund since state investigators discovered the misuse of 3.2 billion yuan (US$407 million). The investigation has brought down several city government officials and corporate executives and has led to the dismissal of Shanghai's Party secretary, Chen Liangyu, and the head of the pension fund, Zhu Junyi. New regulations were enacted in November in the wake of the scandal, requiring that pension fund proceeds can be invested only in treasury bonds or bank deposits. The rule changes also apply to the operation of other social insurance funds covering unemployment, medical treatment, pregnancy leave and work injuries. Guo Shizheng, a member of Shanghai's CPPCC committee, said the pension fund supervision committee would be different from others that have been set up in 27 Chinese provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. "Those consist of government officials and experts and are primarily government bodies," Guo said. "But the Shanghai pension fund supervision committee will include CPPCC members, representatives from the city's labor union and auditing professionals."