A JUNIOR legal counsel paid $700,000 a month from the public purse is facing a major pay cut in the wake of revelations by the South China Morning Post.
And Director of Audit Brian Jenney revealed last night he has begun making formal inquiries into the 'whole area of briefing-out and the reasonableness of the fees being paid'.
A storm of protest also erupted around the Legal Department's Director of Public Prosecutions, Peter Nguyen, as senior government lawyers complained they were working just as hard as lawyer Graham Grant for a fraction of his $700,000 a month.
Mr Nguyen, who left the Bar to become the director in July, was 'apoplectic' when he realised how much money his predecessor John Wood had agreed to pay from taxpayer's coffers for Mr Grant's services, legal sources said yesterday.
After working in the department for six years on the prosecution of former Carrian boss George Tan, Mr Grant resigned in 1991 and the case was briefed out to him at the Bar.
An investigation by the Post revealed Mr Grant had been receiving record special fees of up to $700,000 a month, even though the work could have been done for a fraction of the cost.
But Mr Grant's earnings are set to be slashed under a cost-efficiency drive being launched by Mr Nguyen, the Legal Department said.