Confronted with complaints of rampant cheating on New York’s firefighter exam, FDNY bigwigs chose to pass the buck, according to court testimony yesterday.

Assistant Fire Commissioner Douglas White, testifying for the second day at a trial to determine whether the FDNY can be trusted to hire new recruits without racial bias, was questioned by Brooklyn federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis over why the agency did little to respond to reports that cheating was commonplace during the last firefighter test in 2007.

Saying that the cheating allegations were “very unsettling,” White said he contacted a high official in the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which administered the exam.

White said the official’s first reaction was to say that “there were always complaints about cheating.”

“A few days later [the DCAS official] said, ‘There was nothing to it,’ ” said White.