Police officer paid more than $800,000

A police officer was paid more than $800,000 in the last financial year.

Questions about the identity of the officer are being asked by National law and order spokesman Simon Power who said the police annual report for the past financial year showed one officer was paid in the $800,000-$810,000 range.

He had put in written questions to Police Minister Annette King but she had refused to identify the person, he said.

Police spokesman Jon Neilson said the payment was the result of a personal grievance case dealt with in the courts, but police would not identify the person involved.

The terms of the settlement were confidential, Mr Neilson said.

"It's a privacy issue around the person involved in terms of settlement of the payment."

It is thought the person may be reinstated superintendent Alec Waugh, but Mr Neilson would neither confirm nor deny that.

Mr Waugh resigned as Wanganui police district commander after being charged with expenses fraud, but he was later cleared by the High Court and won reinstatement to the police and backpay after a long Employment Court personal grievance case.

Today his lawyer Rob Moodie said, the police knew "damn well it's the Waugh case".

"There's no other case that would have produced that result. But it wasn't something that just arose out of a personal grievance. I will not have the Waugh case written off in that way," he said.

He would not confirm Mr Waugh had been paid out an amount in the range from $800,000 to $810,000, saying only that he was prepared to confirm Mr Waugh "was paid out a sum..."

Mr Power said he was not prepared to speculate who it was that had been paid the money.

"If it is the money that was paid to Alec Waugh they should just say that," he said.

"My view is it's a disclosure issue more than anything else, in the sense that there's no good reason why the minister wouldn't tell the public who it is that received that sum of money, and yet she's refusing to."

The most recent information showed Commissioner Rob Robinson was paid around $440,000, "so unless he's doubled his salary in the past year, someone is getting a bucket-load more than him," Mr Power said.

"This mystery person was last year paid more than the Governor of the Reserve Bank and the Secretary to the Treasury, making him or her New Zealand's highest paid public servant by a considerable margin."

- NZPA