Top officials of the city’s public-hospital system delayed an audit sought by its concerned board of directors — even as an unrelated probe uncovered widespread abuses on the same $764 million technology contract that would have been audited.

While Health and Hospitals Corp. officials dithered for eight months, the agency’s own inspector general launched a probe last year that found significant rip-offs. This included shelling out $327,000 to train consultants and staffers who left within months, HHC Inspector General Norman Dion found.

Nearly 30 percent of the hospital system’s IT department — or 313 out of 1,048 workers — were consultants as of April, according to the probe, which led to at least six terminations.

Yet when the board of directors sought an audit on the use of consultants in June 2014, then-CIO Bert Robles asked HHC President Ram Raju and COO Antonio (Tony) Martin for help delaying it.

It was iced after Raju responded, “Tony, can you take care of it?”

It wasn’t until February 2015 — the same month that Robles was ousted from his $300,000-a-year position amid the IG probe — that Raju requested a “full financial review” of the project.

HHC spokeswoman Ana Marengo noted that Raju was only 10 weeks into his tenure in June 2014 and had simply deferred to his head of operations. She said Raju ordered the audit, which is near completion, as soon as he was apprised of the concerns.