Some irregularities and disciplinary violations were found in the financial statements of 17 Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) for the 2009 fiscal year, according to audit reports released by the National Audit Office (NAO) on Friday.

By March this year, 735 cases of irregularities have been corrected and 65 people responsible for the irregularities or violations have been punished, said the office.

Last year, the NAO audited the financial statements of 17 centrally-administered SOEs, including CNOOC, CHALCO, COSCO and China Unicom, mostly for the 2009 fiscal year.

Assets worth about 1.9 billion yuan (292.4 million U.S. dollars) and profits of 2.63 billion yuan were overstated in the financial statements of those SOEs, while 3.43 billion yuan in liabilities were falsely included, according to the NAO reports.

Also, profits of 1.2 billion yuan, assets worth 2.9 billion yuan and liabilities of 2.5 billion yuan were undercounted, according to NAO.

Furthermore, owners' equities worth 2.07 billion yuan were not calculated in financial statements.