A senior executive at the NBN Co took home $1.8 million for six months work after securing a seven-figure termination bonus from the job he began in 2013.
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NBN Co's annual report, released last week, showed NBN Co's chief executive Bill Morrow took home $3.6 million last financial year, including a $1.2 million bonus.
This made Mr Morrow one of the highest paid public sector employees in Australia alongside Australia Post chief executive Ahmed Fahour, who earns about $4 million annually.
Mr Morrow was appointed in April 2014 on an annual base salary of more than $2 million.
The report also reveals former chief operating officer Greg Adcock received a $1.5 million termination bonus when he left after less than two years into the job.
Mr Adcock joined the government-owned company in November 2013 directly after leaving a job at Telstra where he negotiated the telco's multi-billion-dollar deal with NBN. This was a month after the Labor-appointed board and management were replaced by a board selected by the incoming Coalition government.
In October 2015, NBN Co announced Mr Adcock was standing down as chief operating officer and would remain in an advisory role.
The annual report reveals his contract stipulated he be paid a short-term bonus "in full in accordance with his employment contract". He received bonuses worth $218,000 in 2013-14, the biggest bonus paid that year, and $351,855 in 2014-15 on top of a $1.1 million base salary.
He did not receive a bonus in 2015-16, but instead left with a termination and salary package worth $1.84 million for just over six months work in the last financial year after leaving in January.
"The terms of his employment were approved by the [board's] remuneration committee based on industry availability and circumstances at the time," an NBN spokeswoman told BusinessDay.
The remuneration committee is made up of NBN Co chairman Ziggy Switkowski and fellow directors Patrick Flannigan and Justin Milne.
Mr Adcock has since been appointed a non-executive director of Service Stream, a telecommunications service and maintenance company.
The annual report also reveals nearly 5000 people are now directly employed by NBN Co. Altogether 15,000 people are working on the roll out of the new broadband network, one of the largest infrastructure projects in Australia's history.
And nearly one quarter of the company's management are female, mostly in middle or senior management. NBN Co wants to increase female managers to 33 per cent by 2020.
NBN Co's revenue reached $421 million in the last financial year compared to $61 million two years ago. It aims to have revenue of $4 billion by 2020.
