BEIJING, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- China's anti-graft authorities announced on Monday in a statement that during the year it had found 21.5 billion yuan (3.24 billion U.S.Dollar) of public money held in unauthorized departmental coffers.

The probe was led by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China.

The probe had put government agencies, public institutions, social groups, state-owned and state holding enterprises under scrutiny, and had uncovered 45,593 cases of public money being held in unauthorized departmental coffers, involving a total of 21.5 billion yuan.

A total of 2,669 officials involved in these cases have been punished, also according to the statement.