KEY POINTS:
New Zealand's top civil servant knew police official Rob Pope was the focus of police inquiries over allegations he swore a misleading affidavit in the Sounds murders case - but recommended him for promotion anyway.
State Services Commissioner Dr Mark Prebble did not tell Prime Minister Helen Clark
and Police Minister Annette King about the inquiry because he says there were "no findings material to Mr Pope's suitability for the role".
Clark and King recommended to the Governor-General that Pope be promoted to Police Deputy Commissioner in 2006.
"Mr Pope and I discussed the fact that he led the Ben Smart and Olivia Hope murder investigation and that it had been a matter of ongoing controversy and a source of complaints. This was not something that seemed either new or significant," Dr Prebble said.
"I have seen nothing since Mr Pope has been in the role that would suggest that it was anything other than a good appointment."
But Act leader Rodney Hide and the father of convicted murderer Scott Watson, Chris, are demanding answers about the four-year-long inquiry.
Hide expected such an inquiry to be completed in days, not years, and asked why Dr Prebble did not warn Clark and King about the inquiry.
"Even if you didn't believe the complaint had any substance, I don't see how he [Prebble] has done his job. It's remarkable that he didn't inform them."
The Herald on Sunday revealed last week that Pope was the subject of an internal police investigation and an independent Police Complaints Authority inquiry over the affidavit.
National police headquarters initially denied the report, then backtracked hours later.
Police have also been unable to explain why the inquiry into New Zealand's second-highest-ranked police officer has taken nearly four years.
The report was expected to be completed this week, but a police spokesman denied it was fast-tracked because of media pressure.
Chris Watson has written to police to voice his concerns the internal inquiry is being conducted by "one of Pope's subordinates" rather than an officer of the same or higher rank.
King has been drawn into the controversy, with Hide submitting a written question to Parliament asking if she knew Pope was the subject of a "criminal investigation" when he was appointed Deputy Commissioner in 2006.
Under parliamentary rules, the answer was due last Monday but Hide had yet to receive it on Friday.
King's spokesman said the minister did not know of the internal inquiries when she and Clark recommended Pope for promotion.
A spokesman for King said Pope was appointed after a "robust and thorough" process undertaken by Prebble on behalf of the Government.
Pope is accused of providing misleading information to obtain a series of interception warrants in 1998 to bug Scott Watson's yacht, home and telephones.
In sworn affidavits he told the High Court at Wellington police believed Watson murdered Hope and Smart for a variety of reasons.
In one affidavit, dated February 18, 1998, Pope claimed Watson matched descriptions given by Guy Wallace and Hayden Morresey of the "mystery man" seen with them on a watertaxi in the Marlborough Sounds.
Wallace and Morresey deny that.
In an interview with police on January 4, 1998, Wallace stated the man with Hope and Smart that day had wavy brown hair, two days' facial hair growth and was wearing a green shirt.
Morresey said the so-called mystery man had straggly shoulder-length hair that needed a cut.
An affidavit filed by Pope on July 28, 1998, to oppose bail for Watson said police had a photo from that day showing Watson was unshaven and had scruffy hair.
No such photograph was produced, but another photo taken (and produced) showed Watson freshly shaven with short and tidy hair.
Police national headquarters have since November refused Herald on Sunday requests to interview Pope.
* HEADLINE GRABBER
Dr Mark Prebble is no stranger to the headlines.
This month he hinted he would dock the performance bonus of Inland Revenue Commissioner Bob Russell after the IRD miscalculated tax revenue by $600 million.
Last year he withheld the bonus of former Environment Ministry chief executive Hugh Logan and knocked 2.5 per cent off his own $420,000 salary over the Madeleine Setchell affair.
The ministry staffer was forced out of her job because her partner worked for National's John Key.
And during an Employment Relations Authority hearing over former Work and Income boss Christine Rankin in 2001 he complained he could see "an embarrassing amount of breast" every time she moved.
