GUANGZHOU: Auditors in Guangdong have found that 5.38 billion yuan ($689.74 million) worth of public funds were spent illegally last year, an official with the provincial auditing department said.

Of that amount, auditors said 1.09 billion yuan ($139.74 million) had been wasted.

The authorities have ordered the involved officials to recover 950 million yuan ($121.79 million) of the misspent money.