President Yoon Suk Yeol has called for the recovery of state subsidies misappropriated by civic organizations and stiff punishment for the perpetrators.

Presidential spokesperson Lee Do-woon said in a briefing on Monday that the president gave the instruction earlier in the day after he was briefed on the outcome of a four-month-long government audit of civic groups that concluded in April.

The top office announced the previous day the results of the bookkeeping inspection of around 12-thousand civilian organizations that received a total of six-point-eight trillion won, or over five billion U.S. dollars, in state assistance over the past three years.

The audit found that 31-point-four billion won from state coffers was misused in one-thousand-865 cases of corruption and irregularities.

According to a government official, the government will review subsidy programs for such organizations and intends to cut this year’s funding by 500 billion won or more to mitigate the possible abuse of taxpayer money.