Deputy police commissioner Peter So Lai-yin, on secondment to run a plant printing Hong Kong's money, will take home two salaries from next month.
Mr So will receive $129,500 a month from the police when he goes on pre-retirement leave for almost a year.
He will also be paid another, undisclosed salary, for working at the government-owned Hong Kong Note Printing Company.
Mr So, 54, said he was entitled to the paid leave, which was 'fully deserved'.
Strict conditions apply to public servants who work after leaving their jobs, and the Civil Service Branch defended Mr So's appointment.
A year after his controversial decision to quit the force was made public - while he was trying to shore up morale and stop senior staff leaving before 1997 - Mr So revealed his reasons for retiring.
A pension scheme meant he had to finish before turning 55 in March next year, and three months before the change of sovereignty would not have been 'a good time to go', he said.
