China's National Audit Office (NAO) said Wednesday 2.84 billion yuan (420 million U.S. dollars) of public funds misused by 13 centrally-administered enterprises in 2008 cannot be retrieved.

China Aerospace Science & Industry Corp. caused the losses of 6.37 billion yuan of state-owned assets in 2008 due to wrong decisions and poor management.

Despite various correction measures adopted by the 13 companies, 2.84 billion yuan were affirmed to be irrecoverable after preliminary assessment, the NAO said.

False financial reporting was also found at the enterprises, it said.

On Monday, Liu Jiayi, China's top auditor said NAO had retrieved losses of 16.3 billion yuan from 99,000 companies, government bodies and public institutions in the first 11 months.

Despite some improvement, embezzlement, waste of money and false fiscal reporting still existed in central departments, Liu said.