China's National Audit Office (NAO) found 117 cases of official embezzlement in 2007, auditor-general Liu Jiayi reported on Wednesday.

Liu revealed the figure in a report on the NAO's work to the fourth session of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

Eighty-eight people involved in the cases were arrested, prosecuted or convicted and 104 were given disciplinary punishments, Liu said.

However, Liu did not release the total amount of embezzled funds.

After auditing the 2007 state budget spending, the expenditure of 29.38 billion yuan (4.32 billion U.S. dollars) was found to be "problematic" at ministerial level, Liu said.

These problems included falsifying budget accounts, fund appropriation and embezzlement, under-reporting revenues and over-reporting expenditures.

"All the 14 people involved have referred for prosecution," he said.

The office audited 53 ministerial-level departments and 368 sub-units.

The office also found 258 million yuan of disaster relief funds were embezzled and used for administrative expenditures or government building construction.

The NAO audited the management of disaster relief funds in 13 provinces. The funds totaling 16.76 billion yuan were collected in 2005 and 2006.

(Xinhua News Agency August 27, 2008)