The report also found abuses in the authority’s student intern program, which was used to put non-students on the payroll, bypassing standard hiring procedures.

Williams announced on Wednesday that he was resigning, effective Nov. 16. He did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday. Williams was not the only staff member auditors faulted.

The inspector general’s office also found that the authority’s vice president for information and telecommunications systems, George R. Ellis, and members of his staff accepted more than 25 free trips from a company with a major contract with the MWAA. Among the gifts accepted were tickets and accommodations to the 2009 Super Bowl, valued at almost $5,000. In total, members of Ellis’s department accepted 46 gifts with a total value of at least $12,000.

Ellis was terminated, according to the inspector general’s report. It is unclear whether the other employees were disciplined. Ellis did not respond to requests for comment. Recently, he had accepted a job as chief information officer for Albany, N.Y., but a spokesman said that after learning Thursday about the inspector general’s report, the city may reconsider its offer.