About 6.87 billion yuan (US$937 million) worth of public funds was used by central government agencies without authorization during the first 11 months of the year, a senior audit official said yesterday.

"These abuses were uncovered after auditing 56 ministerial-level departments and 434 of their affiliates," Li Jinhua, auditor-general of the National Audit Office said at the national audit conference held in Beijing.

A total 4.2 billion yuan (US$571 million) had been recovered by the end of October, he claimed.

His office also helped to recover 7.16 billion yuan (US$975 million) that would either have been embezzled or withheld from a variety of uses: subsidies to agriculture and nine-year compulsory education in rural regions, disaster relief, social insurance, pension funds and land sale revenues.

"The ministerial-level departments took immediate and effective action to rectify the financial abuses following the order from the State Council," the auditor-general said. "(We) should pay much attention to rectification as well as auditing work."

Li also said a total amount of 27.1 billion yuan (US$3.98 billion) had been squandered nationwide through auditing.

This year's efficiency audit emphasis is focused on wrong decisions, project construction and consumption of public coffers, he said.

He also revealed at yesterday's audit conference that during the first 11 month of 2007, the country's audit organs audited more than 25,000 officials nationwide, among them 361 prefecture-level officials.

It found 3.6 billion yuan (US$490 million) in financial abuses and transferred 304 officials to prosecutors and Communist Party disciplinary agencies.

Meanwhile, more than 90,000 companies and public institutions were audited and 929 cases involving illegal use of funds were handed over to prosecutors and Party disciplinary bodies.

(Xinhua News Agency December 27, 2007)