A regional daily has called for an “urgent review” into payments made to election returning officers after an exclusive investigation by the newspaper.

The Yorkshire Posts has revealed that council chief executives in the county it covers have received as much as £65,000 on top of their annual salaries for administering elections.

The Post found Leeds Council chief executive Tom Riordan received £65,567 in 2016/17 on top of his salary package of £204,344, along with a further £27,710 in 2017/18, while Joanne Roney received a total of £37,577 in 2016/17 on top of her salary package of £214,133 as then-Wakefield Council CEO.

The extra amounts routinely disclosed in council accounts because such payments are made through the Cabinet Office, except in the case of local elections.

The Post splashed on its findings yesterday, and said in an accompanying editorial: “The Yorkshire Post is today calling for an urgent review into payments being made to returning officers, the select few individuals who receive substantial additional remuneration on top of already generous executive salaries.

“In an age of austerity, spending cuts and hard-pressed public finances, it is a matter of serious concern that there is a lack of transparency over the payments made to those who oversee elections or referenda.”

It added: “There is no doubt that Mr Riordan carries a great deal of responsibility in his role as a returning officer, yet it is hard to see how the work does not overlap with his day-to-day duties. His pledge to declare additional earnings in future is welcome, but only comes as a result of tenacious inquiries from this newspaper.

“Volunteering such information misses the point. It is unacceptable that taxpayers should only be able to discover what is being paid as a result of a newspaper investigation.

“This information should be freely available. If it is not, that will only fuel public suspicion that there is a clandestine element to the payments and foster mistrust of the political establishment.”

A Leeds Council spokesman told the Post: “Leeds City Council, unlike many other local authorities, does not pay its returning officer additional fees for running local elections. Our chief executive has been successfully overseeing the electoral systems of the second-biggest council in the country, with its complex planning and management of the process to elect 99 councillors, for no extra pay.

“However, when it comes to general elections, referendums and regional elections, Tom has no say in the setting of a fee, which is paid at national level and set by the Cabinet Office. Its level is based on how many people are eligible to vote in the area. “The role of returning officer is entirely separate from Tom’s role with the council and he carries out the legislative duties in addition to his substantive post.”