The former MBTA worker who racked up more than 2,600 hours of overtime and nearly $330,000 in pay last year regularly approved his own extra time, according to a scathing audit that, despite slamming the abuse, determined there was no “inappropriate conduct” by employees.

A maintenance foreman who led all T employees in OT earned in 2015 — helping inflate his $84,822 base salary to $327,636, according to payroll records — “regularly approved his own overtime reporting form,” something that should have been approved by a supervisor, the audit stated.

Click here for the MBTA payroll report for 2015…

At that rate, the worker was putting in an average of 50 hours of overtime every week, assuming he took no vacation last year. That further translates into a roughly 90-hour work week each week for a full year.

Efforts to reach the worker yesterday were not successful. Officials said he retired from the T Jan. 31.

The shocking finding, released yesterday as part of a preliminary review of the agency’s excessive overtime problem, was one of several practices pinpointed as helping drive the T’s overtime costs, which last year topped more than $75 million and has become a target for reform.

Auditors wrote that the agency lacks formal policies for overtime “across the MBTA” and frontline supervisors often don’t have detailed reports comparing OT use to the budget. Timekeepers also accepted approval sheets that had “preprinted” names of supervisors or managers, raising questions of how they were approved.

Joe Pesaturo, a T spokesman, said the practice of workers signing off on their own OT is “not widespread.” One official representing machinists says none of his 500 members can authorize their own overtime.

“From our membership’s perspective, whether someone is on straight time or overtime, someone has to scan or punch out. That eliminates the kinds of examples that you’re asking about it,” said Craig Hughes, the secretary-treasurer of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 264. “We don’t authorize our own overtime.”

But the audit notes that the entire timekeeping process at the T has been inconsistent depending on an employee’s title. Some departments, auditors wrote, always offer extra time to the most senior employees.

The report notes that since the start of the year, T officials have made moves to improve controls, and overtime is down 28 percent compared to the same period last year. In 2015, for example, the T was spending $154,000 per day on overtime, but through early February, that had dropped to $115,000.

The revelations about overtime practices came as the T also released a dark picture of the agency’s privately held pension fund. Under adjustments made of its rate of return, long-term liabilities are projected to jump $53 million and the taxpayer-funded agency’s own contributions would increase $8 million to $84 million this fiscal year.

T officials said that they’re still awaiting an outside review to wrap at the MBTA Retirement Fund before determining exact numbers. A fund spokesman said that review should be done by the end of the month.

Said Michael Abramo, the T’s acting CFO: “There will be a negative impact on our budget going forward … and in future fiscal years.”