Financial staffers at Portland Public Schools could not manage to keep accurate tabs on tens of millions the district had on hand and millions more it owed, a new audit has found.

As a result, the Portland school board Tuesday unanimously approved new training and procedures designed to correct the flaws in its money monitoring system.

For instance, the district financial staff's accounting when the fiscal year ended June 30 stated that the district had $37 million less in unrestricted money than the district actually did. They also failed to notice that an outside contractor falsely reported that the district had made $18 million in employee pension payments. In fact, those payments had not yet occurred.

On the flip side, the district listed $2 million in construction costs for the current fiscal year when the bills in fact had been incurred before June 30, 2017, auditors determined.

At the meeting, school board member Amy Kohnstamm pointed out that — although the vote happened tonight — the district has not waited to take corrective action. Safer financial controls are already in place, she said.

The audit was done by auditing firm Talbot, Korvola & Warwick.

Read the full audit here.

— Bethany Barnes

Got a tip about Portland Public Schools? Email Bethany: bbarnes@oregonian.com