Two more groups of officials have been punished for using public funds to travel overseas.

Four officials with the Hainan provincial bureau of the salt industry, including bureau chief Xing Fuhuang and deputy chief Shi Qizhe, were issued Party and administrative penalties, Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday.

The bureau organized three groups of mid-level and high-ranking officials to travel abroad on purported "business tours". The report did not mention their destinations.