BUFFALO — What state colleges and universities tell federal education officials about crime on campus doesn’t always match up to what their own internal records say, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Wednesday.

DiNapoli said an audit by his office examining whether State University of New York campuses were meeting federal crime-reporting requirements found inconsistencies in statistics at two-thirds of the schools.

Auditors also found that some colleges failed to report serious crimes such as sexual offenses, burglaries and drug offenses.

DiNapoli did not say he found any deliberate attempt by colleges to mislead the public about campus crime. But he called the findings disturbing nonetheless.

“Students should have a clear and accurate picture of what’s happening on their campus so they can protect themselves and their property,” he told reporters in Buffalo.

The federal Clery Act requires colleges and universities to release annual security reports detailing crime statistics for the previous three years. The U.S. Department of Education publishes the statistics online.

DiNapoli said his auditors found that statistics reported to DOE conflicted with internal records at 19 of 28 schools, with discrepancies ranging from minor to significant.

Part of the problem, the comptroller said, is that not all SUNY employees have been properly trained on the specific reporting requirements, leading to confusion over how crimes should be classified and indexed.

“It calls out for much more priority and care to be paid to this very important responsibility,” the comptroller said.

SUNY’s flagship University at Buffalo was cited for failing to report 20 incidents to the DOE in 2006, including 17 drug offenses. It also was found to have underreported 75 disciplinary actions — violations of law that did not result in arrests — including 43 drug, 27 liquor and five weapon incidents. A problem with a computer program caused some crimes to be misclassified, auditors said.

At SUNY Stony Brook, burglaries, which must be reported, were routinely classified by campus police as larcenies, which are not reportable, auditors found. Campus police there also classified nine forcible sexual offenses as “investigations” without indicating the nature of the incidents, the report said.

A statement issued by UB said the university is committed to the goals of the Clery Act and has taken steps to correct the reporting errors. The university said the issues were the result of “honest errors” in interpreting Clery requirements.

“There never was any attempt by the university to deliberately underreport crimes or manipulate data,” the statement said. “In some cases, the audit found that UB actually overreported crime data.

SUNY’s assistant vice chancellor for university police, Roger Johnson, pointed out the audit did not address whether campuses are safe, only how data is reported.

“We will review the comptroller’s audit and clarify any reporting inconsistencies,” Johnson said.

Schools found in violation of Clery Act requirements are subject to fines of up to $27,500, DiNapoli said. The audit released Wednesday was given to the DOE but it was not yet known whether any fines would result.

On the Net

New York State Office of the Comptroller: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/