China's National Audit Office said on Thursday it has uncovered corruption by the country's sports authorities in which 131 million yuan ($15.8 million) earmarked for the 2008 Beijing Olympics was spent on apartments for staff and investments.

The country's leading auditor, in its annual report on its web site, www.audit.gov.cn, said Beijing's General Administration of Sports, a member of the capital's 2008 Olympic organising committee, had misused the money since 1999.

It said about 109 million yuan from a special Games fund was used to build apartments for staff and the remaining 22 million was paid to the administration's staff as bonus or given to its affiliated companies as loans.

The report added that 1.42 billion of public funds was misused by 41 central government bodies in the last year.

The disclosure comes two months before the Athens Games, and is likely to embarrass Beijing officials who are hoping to organise the Olympics without bad publicity or scandal.