A local discipline watchdog in Central China's Hunan province has made a public apology online for spending public money on travel.

Last Friday, a post on local portal rednet.cn said 40 officials from the disciplinary supervision committee of Huarong county of Hunan illegally used 200,000 yuan ($29,500) of public money to travel to Guizhou earlier this month.

The disciplinary supervision committee replied to the post on Monday, admitting that the visit had exceeded its original aim of education, and included a trip using public funds.

But the committee said the total expenses for the travel was only 59,000 yuan, instead of the alleged 200,000 yuan. In order to make amends, officials would repay the costs of the travel, it said.

"I bargained with the travel agency myself, and the cost was less than that alleged," said Hu Beizhi, chairman of the labor union of the Huarong disciplinary committee.

According to Hu, the labor union intended to organize a trip for its grassroots staff to visit the city of Zunyi in Guizhou to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of Communist Party of China, which falls on July 1.

Forty-four people, including 24 lower-level staff, 19 committee staff and Hu, left Hunan on July 2 and returned on July 5. At the last minute they decided to visit the Huangguoshu Waterfalls, also in Guizhou, and spent an additional 240 yuan per person for that trip.

"Since we ourselves are supervisory officials, we have to admit our mistake and correct it as soon as possible," Hu said.

The committee also decided that participants in the travel should each pay 1,340 yuan for the visit and the waterfall. A staff member of the committee told China Daily the repayment of funds had "almost been completed by Thursday".

"Anyone can make a mistake, but the Huarong disciplinary committee responded quickly, which deserves our applause," said Ren Jianming, director of the anti-corruption and governance research center of Tsinghua University.

"I suggest the Party congress establish a special committee to receive complaints against disciplinary officials at all levels," Ren said. Currently, disciplinary departments report to equivalent Party congresses once every five years.