Government ministries made a series of errors in assessing the value of state-owned assets that bloated their total book value by more than 5 trillion won ($4.2 billion), the state auditor said Thursday.

The defense ministry topped the list of agencies with accounting problems, with its failure to deduct depreciation from property values resulting in inflating their value by about 3.2 trillion won more than their total worth, the Board of Audit and Inspection said.

The ministry also used incorrect data to appraise the value of its land properties, thus inflating their value by approximately an additional 1.6 trillion won, the auditor said in a report on its inspection of government accounting in the fiscal year 2011.

Other accounting problems included the education ministry classifying a loan it extended to a teachers’ pension fund as an investment, and the Justice Ministry listing downpayments on rented real estate in an incorrect accounting category. 

(Yonhap News)