The Northern Ireland Policing Board has confirmed its chief executive formally resigned more than three weeks ago.
Adrian Donaldson, a former chief executive of Castlereagh Borough Council on the outskirts of east Belfast, had been on sick leave since last December. He left his post on March 1st.
A statement from the Policing Board, which oversees the operations of the PSNI, said: "Interim arrangements have been put in place and the recruitment of a new chief executive will be taken forward by the board in due course. The board has no further comment to make at this time."
Mr Donaldson's resignation follows two reviews of the Policing Board which were critical of its operations. An independent report on the running of the board found it lacking in direction, slow, bureaucratic and poor value for its near £9 million (€10 million) annual budget.
This was followed within weeks with Ulster Unionist calls for the board to be stood down and its powers transferred to the Department of Justice at Stormont.
The DUP argued for the board to be kept but called for it to be reformed as it was "terminally ill" and "no longer sustainable in its present form".
Sinn Féin and the SDLP have called for the board, set up when the PSNI took over the policing role from the former RUC in late 2001, to be retained. Sinn Féin has also formally criticised a decision by Northern Secretary Owen Paterson to end the controversial 50:50 police recruitment policy.
The policy meant that of all new recruits to the police service, half had to come from the wider Catholic/nationalist community and the other half were "others".
Mr Paterson said today the policy, strongly opposed by unionists for the past nine years, would end this weekend. Justice minister David Ford welcomed the decision claiming Northern Ireland had changed significantly since the provisions were first introduced in 2001.
"I believe the PSNI will continue to attract excellent applicants from all sections of our community without the use of the temporary provisions," he said.
"I am acutely aware of the value of having a police service which is reflective of the entire community and with the community in Northern Ireland becoming more diverse this becomes increasingly important.
"The PSNI will continue with their outreach work, and I have no doubt that community leaders will continue to encourage their communities to apply to join the PSNI and give the PSNI their support."
However, Sinn Féin Assembly member Alex Maskey said the onus remains on the police "to engage with communities, build confidence within communities and the composition of the police is an essential element of this process".
He added: "The people that we in Sinn Féin represent will not accept anything less than the highest standard of community focused, civic, accountable and representative policing, regardless of whatever any absentee British minister believes."