Chinese authorities have punished hundreds of people involved in major fiscal violations, after an audit of the government's 2016 central budget and fiscal policy.

Hu Zejun, head of the National Audit Office (NAO), made the statement Friday while briefing lawmakers on the audit.

Some 315 people were punished for irregularities in the use of affordable housing funds as well as the application and allocation of affordable housing, according to Hu.

Auditors found that 53.23 billion yuan (7.8 billion U.S. dollars) originally earmarked for affordable housing projects had been left unused for more than one year, while another 1.03 billion yuan had been misused for commercial housing development or office expenses.

A total of 905 million yuan was recovered after the audit, Hu said.

She noted violations were also detected in the audit of 20 central state-owned enterprises, leading to the punishment of 309 people.

NAO found that 18 of the state firms have, with improper accounting procedures, overstated their earnings by 200.16 billion yuan and inflated the profits by 20.3 billion yuan, accounting for 0.8 percent and 1.7 percent of the total, respectively.

Another 70 people were punished for irregular loan issuance and other malpractices in the financial sector, while 44 people were punished for irregularities in the use of poverty relief funds, Hu said.

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