A long-overdue audit presented to Dallas school trustees Thursday revealed a finance staff that failed to carry out basic accounting practices, employees who ignored internal controls and others who often broke federal grant spending rules.

After months of delays, the final report provided example after example of how the Dallas Independent School District failed to safeguard and track taxpayer money.

Although the report disclosed no evidence of malfeasance, it revealed a finance department populated with poorly trained workers who often flout the district's internal controls with no consequences.

The report found lax policies and procedures in nearly every part of the district that handles money, from payroll to grant funds to numerous ledgers that do not reconcile.

Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said, given that environment, the district was ripe for the picking.

"We're fortunate that we didn't have money missing," Dr. Hinojosa said.

He pledged that the district would clean up the problems, which, he said, have been festering for years.

"These are not 5-year-old problems; these are not 10-year-old problems," he said. "These are problems the district has had for 20 years. These are long-standing problems with Dallas."

Indeed, auditors in 1999 found systemic problems in the district's payroll department, including failure to scrub from the rolls the names of workers who had left the district.

Nearly a decade later, Deloitte & Touche's report found the same problem.

DISD hired Deloitte more than a year ago to work on the audit, which was due in December. The cost has reached $2 million.

The auditors found 12 "material weaknesses" and seven "significant deficiencies" in district accounts. Some of the problems were minor. For example, the district failed to undertake periodic counts of its capital assets.

But many of the problems highlighted by auditors revealed a finance department that too often did not complete essential accounting tasks.

Payroll records were not consistently updated when employees left the district or switched jobs. Monthly bank reconciliations were not properly performed or documented. The district was often forced to return grant money after failing to spend it in a timely manner.

Tom Hall, a professor of accounting at the University of Texas at Arlington, said the audit's findings are surprising given the resources available to the district to adequately staff its finance department.

"Material internal control weaknesses and missing documentation are signs of very serious problems," Dr. Hall said. "Material internal control weaknesses are rare in large organizations."

Sandy Alexander, an accountant and certified fraud examiner, reviewed the audit and found its findings "unremarkable," involving weaknesses that are somewhat common.

"It looks like DISD simply cannot recruit qualified individuals with adequate skills to do their jobs and then fails to properly manage them," Mr. Alexander said. "These are the kinds of problems you'd find in any big accounting department that doesn't recruit skilled people."

The district did not disagree with any of the 34 problems auditors cited in their report. For each one, the district laid out how it intended to fix the weaknesses identified.

Trustees asked administrators if the district, with only five CPAs on staff, has enough skilled employees to fix the problems highlighted by the audit.

Eric Anderson, the district's chief operating officer, said the district is relying on outside consultants to help right the ship. In the weeks ahead, the district will begin to assess the types of professionals it needs to bring on full time.

"The manpower of the organization will be looked at to make sure we have the skills and resources we need to have a world-class financial management of this district," Mr. Anderson said.

Carolyn Jones, one of two consultants brought in to oversee the district's finance department in the short term, said it will take three years to fully fix all of the problems brought to light by the audit.

Establishing a thorough "corrective action plan" is crucial, district officials have said, as DISD tries to regain the confidence of the Texas Education Agency and the federal government, which provides the district with more than $180 million in annual grants and funding.

Fixing the problems is also critical for the district's efforts to secure a AAA bond rating as it moves to carry out a recently approved $1.35 billion school construction program this fall.

The district needs the state's support to get that top rating. Selling construction bonds without the state's backing would cost taxpayers millions of dollars over the life of the bonds, said Steve Korby, who along with Mrs. Jones is overseeing the district's finances.

The district's biggest and most immediate hurdle is fixing how it monitors and spends its federal grant money. Records were so shoddy that auditors had a tough time determining how much grant money the district had spent.

"As the district has not sufficiently tracked spending by year, it was difficult to determine whether the district has cumulatively over- or under-spent [grant] funds," the audit states.

Board President Jack Lowe said that even though auditors did not find graft, the problems they did find are "a big deal."

"We're supposed to be doing things right," he said.

Dr. Hinojosa said that, this time, shortcomings in the district's finance shop will be addressed.

"Absolutely these problems are getting fixed," he said. "We're in this for the long haul. It's going to get done this time."

Staff writer Lori Stahl contributed to this report.