Thousands of illegalities have been discovered in a probe of the previous Moon Jae-in administration’s national renewable energy projects.

An audit of 12 local governments conducted jointly by the Office for Government Policy Coordination and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy revealed two-thousand-267 cases of illegal maneuvers related to “electric power infrastructure projects” over the past five years.

Illegal loans and payouts amounted to 261-point-six billion won.

More than one-thousand-400 cases of illegal and improper loans were found in the year-long audit, while fraudulent tax invoices worth over 20 billion won were issued to illegally borrow more than 14 billion won.

The inspection also discovered instances in which solar power facilities were illegally installed on farmland.

The policy coordination office explained that the audit was conducted amid mounting calls to look into the operation of a national energy initiative that has received 12 trillion won in funding since 2018.