The Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, created in the 1950s to break the mob’s grip on the docks, became its own bastion of lawlessness, employing some of the same corrupt, self-serving methods as the gangsters it was supposed to pursue, investigators said Tuesday in a scathing report.

Top officials at the $11-million-a-year bistate agency divided spoils, helped cronies evade the law and thwarted security provisions meant to safeguard the port against terrorism, according to the report by the New York State inspector general, which capped a nearly two-year investigation in 2007 and 2008 that the commission had sought to block in court.

As a result of the findings, virtually the entire executive staff has been ousted  with the New Jersey commissioner, Michael J. Madonna, a former police officer and union representative, dismissed last week, the commission revealed. The former New York commissioner, Michael C. Axelrod, who was also faulted for abuses, was not reappointed after his term ended last year.

New leadership was put in place starting last year.

“It was an utter disaster when we stepped in,” the inspector general, Joseph Fisch, said in an interview, calling the state of affairs then “a remnant and continuation of the old waterfront.”