BEIJING, CHINA - China has recovered 26.77 billion yuan (S$5.7 billion) of public money that was embezzled last year, the country's top audit official said in a report seen Thursday.

Some 30 people involved in 116 cases had been arrested and sentenced, the official Xinhua news agency quoted Liu Jiayi, head of the National Audit Office, as saying. Another 117 received punishment according to Communist Party rules, Xinhua said, without elaborating.

In many cases money was taken or illegally transferred by officials, but investigators also uncovered problems including unsound loans, dereliction of duty and insider trading, Liu said.

Rising revenues in recent years and now the government's big stimulus plan have put growing sums of money within the reach of officials, and corruption is one of the top frustrations for ordinary citizens in one-Party China.

Anger at greedy or abusive officials occasionally erupts into protests and violence, and Beijing regularly launches anti-corruption crackdowns to try and tackle the problem, with limited success.

Liu said spending on conferences and overseas trips was down after the global financial crisis prompted a cut-back in perks but there was still problems with "extravagance, waste, false reporting of expenses and cheating."

"Some officials increase the number of personnel, change the route or prolong a stopover duration of official trips abroad without permission," the Xinhua report said.

Illegal bank lending totaling 21.5 billion yuan was also discovered by auditors, including fake mortgages, loans to substandard real estate companies, and loans that were not in line with government policies.

"Some branches of the six banks had issued loans up to 10.69 billion yuan to projects not in line with industry policies or unapproved projects," Liu said.

(Reporting by Emma Graham-Harrison; editing by Benjamin Kang Lim and Sanjeev Miglani)