IRREGULARITIES involving billions of yuan were found in a review of 2011 revenue and expenditure at 10 state-owned companies and three banks by China's top auditor.

Violations included China Mobile spending 24 million yuan (US$3.9 million) to buy gym cards for staff, which was a breach of salary management rules; China Guodian Corp, a power firm, investing in projects worth 30 billion yuan without approval from the country's top economic planner; China Huaneng Group, an energy firm, owing business tax of 392 million yuan and investing 32.4 billion yuan in unapproved projects.

"The state-owned companies have contributed to keeping economic growth stable ... but some problems have been found during auditing," the National Audit Office said yesterday. "Some lack standardized financial management, some violated investment and project management rules, and some neglected inner corporate management."

The other SOEs - the State Nuclear Power Technology Corp, China Minmetals Corp, Commercial Aircraft Corp of China, China Grain Reserves Corp, State Development and Investment Corp, China Publishing Group Corp and China National Aviation Holding Co - were found to have miscalculated revenue or profits, misused funds and land for unstated purposes, and their investments were ineffective.

Three state-owned banks, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and Export-Import Bank of China, were found to have extended loans worth 24.5 billion yuan that broke rules and regulations.

"Violations include extending loans to unqualified projects and companies, breaching lending procedures, and extending individual loans against the rules," the office said.

The banks were also found raising deposit rates against the rules, reporting false deposit volume and inflating capital assets.

More than 500 million yuan owed in taxes has been paid and 622 million yuan in losses recovered, the audit office said.

Problems found in the banks had been "basically" corrected by March last year, it said.