The Birmingham elections officer suspended from duty in April following the discovery of 255 uncounted postal votes faces a further wait for the conclusion of an inquiry into the incident.

John Owen has been at home on full pay since April 12 when the completed ballot slips from the 2004 city council elections were found in a box hidden in a locked cupboard.

Council officials have spent three months investigating what happened, but Mr Owen is yet to face a formal disciplinary hearing.

Alan Rudge, cabinet member for equalities and human resources, said it could be a further four weeks before the council would be in a position to begin the disciplinary process.

Coun Rudge (Con Sutton Vesey) added: "The investigation part of this has now been completed and we are ready to move to the next stage. We are waiting to make the arrangements for the disciplinary stage which will involve a resolution of the investigation and any other relevant matters.

"I would hope it would be within the next four weeks because the most important thing is not to let this hang around for a long time. We are determined to do it scrupulously fairly."

A second council official suspended along with Mr Owen has returned to work.

The cost of the suspension of Mr Owen, the second official and a third employee of the democratic services department, Lib Dem researcher Steve Kirkham, is already £33,500 in salary payments. Mr Kirkham has no connection with the missing postal votes.

Mr Owen, regarded as one of the country's foremost experts in running elections, faced criticism over the "chaotic" organisation of the 2004 council polls. An election court heard how Birmingham failed to cope with a record 70,000 postal votes.

Staff working for Mr Owen ran out of ballot boxes and took postal votes to the count in

plastic shopping bags in contravention of election law.

On April 12 the head of the West Midlands Police economic crime unit and the council's chief legal officer raided the elections office and found 255 completed but uncounted postal votes.

A council investigation found that in only two out of 16 wards could the uncounted votes have made a difference to the election result.