The BT executive who worked across joint venture deals with Lancashire CC and Liverpool City Council, was paid more than £500,000 by Lancashire earlier this year, it has emerged.
David McElhinney resigned from the Lancs/BT joint venture, One Connect, earlier this month following the suspension of Lancashire chief executive Phil Halsall.
Mr Halsall was suspended while an investigation was carried out over contracts tendered to One Connect.
Mr McElhinney, is also chief executive of BT's Liverpool joint venture, Liverpool Direct, and a director at Liverpool City Council.
Officially, Mr McElhinney was paid a salary of £40,000 - plus bonuses - for his role at One Connect, on top of his Liverpool earnings. However, two payments from Lancashire earlier this year amounted to more than half a million pounds.
Documents before the county council revealed Mr McElhinney received £231,709 in June, followed by £275,888 in July - shortly before his resignation from One Connect in August.
A report, which will go before the council's Audit and Governance committee on Monday, says the county council set the salary. 'However, under the terms of the arrangements with BT and One Connect Limited (OCL), any bonus payments and other remuneration would be agreed by OCL,' it says.
The report says: 'the County Council's authorisation for these payments being made to Mr McElhinney is currently under review.'
Liverpool council Lib Dem group leader Cllr Richard Kemp told The MJ: 'This complex deal between Labour controlled Liverpool and (then) Tory controlled Lancashire needs a full investigation in public and where all actions past and present can be fully examined.
'As the Audit Commission has been abolished and I have no faith in private auditors I have asked Eric Pickles to intervene to ensure that tax payers in Liverpool and Lancashire are getting value for money over these intertwining deals with BT.'
Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson told local press: 'Whatever he gets paid is a decision for BT, not for us, whether they pay him ten bob a week or £10,000.'
For the Lancashire report, with full details of Mr McElhinney's remuneration, see here
http://council.lancashire.gov.uk/documents/s28241/Covering
