That drops to $22 million once operating expenses are deducted, but during its existence $301.8million was saved in the sector.
It was unclear how much HBL contributed to those savings.
Responsible for the programme that will see meals on wheels trucked from Auckland to Dunedin and Invercargill, HBL was shelved by the Government after its programmes became delay-prone, costly, and were resisted by some health boards.
HBL was tasked with helping the sector achieve $700 million savings over five years to June 2016.
The report does not cover HBL's final year, 2014-15.
The report looks closely at HBL's finance, procurement and supply chain programme, the implementation costs of which shot up from $92.1 million to $120 million.
''The scale of the change of the [finance] programme and the effect on DHBs was more challenging than first anticipated.
''The programme's goals were ambitious, requiring creating a single system that could replace 20 systems and different ways of operating.
''It appears that HBL underestimated the health sector's fragmentation.''
Communication with health boards was inadequate, and some boards' commitment ''appears to have been limited''.
The finance programme has previously been blamed for an exodus of skilled business analysts from Southern District Health Board, but this is not canvassed in the report.
Labour health spokeswoman Annette King, who asked the Auditor-general to investigate HBL, said HBL had been an ''obscene'' waste of money.
''The report, instigated by Labour, shows that while Health Benefits Limited was supposed to save $700 million, it only managed to make savings of $71 million.
''The report also highlights the fact there was no project manager keeping an eye on cost blow-outs, expenses were not budgeted for, there was little consultation with DHBs and there was no buy-in from clinicians.''
Health Minister Dr Jonathan Coleman said the report confirmed valuable savings had been made, as well as supporting his decision to advance the savings cases under a new vehicle.
''The report also confirms that along with the DHBs, HBL helped save over $300 million by reducing finance procurement and supply chain costs.
''... a range of other benefits resulted from HBL's work, such as improvements to DHBs' data integrity and the sharing of good practice in administrative and support services.''
Dr Coleman said HBL had been replaced with a DHB-owned and managed company called New Zealand Health Partnerships Ltd.
