£900,000 contract probed

Cathy Butterworth - contract probe

Special policing contracts which saw one boss handed a contract worth nearly £900,000 in wages and payments over three years have come under fire from Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd.

Under the 2008 contract, GMP’s director of learning and development Cathy Butterworth - who now works for Oldham Council - was given a salary of £87,000 plus a bonus of up to £8,700 a year, a pension fund of an estimated £400,000 and a termination payment of more than £200,000.

Ms Butterworth left GMP in 2011 to become assistant head of people strategy for Oldham Council. She has now been told the details of her contract - negotiated on special terms - are under investigation for a second time.

An earlier Independent Police Complaints Commission review of the contract found no evidence of wrongdoing.

Mr Lloyd said: “This obviously pre-dates my time as commissioner, but what I can say is that I don’t agree with special contracts. If there are circumstances in which a non-standard contract might be appropriate, the Chief Constable has agreed it won’t be issued without my approval.”