BEIJING, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- More than 6,000 people have been punished or held accountable for misusing poverty relief funds in the past five years, China's auditing authorities said Tuesday.

These people were punished after Chinese auditors examined the use of poverty relief funds in more than 270 impoverished counties in the last five years, according to Hu Zejun, head of the National Audit Office.

A total of 6 billion yuan (920 million U.S. dollars) of the misused funds was recovered after the audit, she told a conference.

Poverty alleviation has been listed as one of China's "three tough battles" for the next three years, along with risk prevention and pollution control. The three fields will be the focus of Chinese auditors in 2018.

For pollution control, authorities will start auditing the management of natural resources by outgoing officials to examine their work in environmental protection over their terms.

Chinese auditors will make environmental issues more relevant in the performance assessment of local officials to drive progress in economic development and environment protection, Hu said.