A Treasury official will help the state's police department to identify savings in line with the government's 3 per cent efficiency-based savings amid claims the Police Minister is not doing his job properly.
Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan has suggested the state government provide assistance to identify savings without impacting front-line services.
Police Minister Rob Johnson today said he did want Mr O'Callaghan to be distracted from his core responsibilities.
"The WA Police have so far put forward two separate sets of proposals where they believe savings could be made," he said.
"Unfortunately, these were not acceptable to the Government and our commitment to maintain front-line services.
"This has created a difficult situation for the Commissioner so we have agreed to support him with an advisor from the Department of Treasury and Finance working under the guidance of the Economic Audit Committee.
"I fully accept that the Commissioner, like other Government CEO's, is facing an extremely difficult task trying to come up with efficiency savings while maintaining front-line services."
The ABC reported that Shadow Police Minister Margaret Quirk as saying Treasury officials would not be required if Mr Johnson was doing his job properly.
