DERBY City Council's Strategic Director of Resources, Roger Kershaw, has been suspended from his duties pending further investigation.
A council statement said the authority "stressed that this was a neutral act".
A spokeswoman said this meant the suspension did not imply guilt.
She said: "The council can make no further comment on this matter until the process has been concluded."
Mr Kershaw took on the role of managing the council's resources from interim director Julian Kearsley in early 2011.
His previous post had been as corporate director of resources at Somerset County Council, where he had also been corporate director for performance development and head of corporate finance.
Before that he worked as head of revenue planning at Warwickshire County Council and head of finance with Warwickshire Constabulary.
Mr Kershaw had recently overseen the council's controversial equal pay review.
The Government-ordered review was aimed at ensuring the workforce receives fair wages for work of equal value with common terms and conditions.
Historically, this has not been the case, mainly because women were not paid a fair amount in comparison to men.
About 600 non-school council staff saw cuts in their basic pay, 2,000 saw no change, and 800 saw an increase in their basic pay as a result of the changes.
Mr Kershaw's importance at the council was under-lined when he travelled, in March, with its chief executive and leader to speak with Brandon Lewis, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Local Government and Planning, about Derby getting a fairer funding deal from Whitehall.
