China's auditors found government officials were responsible for economic losses of 5 billion yuan (625 million U.S. dollars) due to illegal or irregular administration last year, said China's top auditor Monday.

The country's auditing agencies checked 34,000 officials and transferred 116 of them to disciplinary or judicial departments for punishment, said Li Jinhua, auditor-general of the National Audit Office (CNAO) at the annual auditing work conference on Monday.

The CNAO will continue its pilot audit of the performance of provincial and ministerial-level officials in economic activities and improve the auditing system of officials at lower levels, said Li.

He urged auditors to give priority to auditing the performance of officials in protecting the environment, land policy implementation, government deficits and significant decision making.

The CNAO will try to work out a special regulation on auditing the economic performance of officials as soon as possible, said Li.

Last June, China revised its Audit Law, which requires government officials to be audited during their tenure to ensure efficient use of public funds and prevent corruption.

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