Published Thursday, 19 August 2010
The temporary replacement of Paul Priestly was announced with immediate effect by the Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, Bruce Robinson on Thursday.
Mr McKibbin has been in charge at Department for Agriculture and Rural Development since 2007.
Gerry Lavery, Senior Finance Director in DARD, will be temporarily promoted to the post of Permanent Secretary in that Department.
Mr Priestly was suspended earlier this week, a day after UTV Live Tonight looked into the circumstances leading to the sacking of four non-executive directors at NIW.
The Northern Ireland Civil Service has now launched an investigation into his conduct in relation to a Public Accounts Committee hearing on NI Water.
Mr Priestly, a career civil servant and Northern Ireland Office veteran, was a key witness at the PAC hearing in July.
Special sitting
On Tuesday, DRD minister Conor Murphy said the position of his Permanent Secretary was "no longer tenable", after receiving new information in a telephone conversation he had with his highest ranking official.
Mr Murphy will brief the assembly committed responsible for overseeing his department at the first available opportunity, a DRD spokesman has confirmed.
It is understood Mr Murphy is likely to address committee members in early September.
The committee will first hold a special sitting on Friday to discuss the fallout.
Mr Priestly was at the heart of a three-month investigation by UTV Business Editor Jamie Delargy into the sackings of Declan Gormley, Ruth Thompson, John Ballard and Chris Mellor from Northern Ireland Water.
The four non-executive directors were fired in March, after an internal audit revealed contracts worth millions of pounds had been improperly approved.
Following the audit, the Department of Regional Development appointed an Independent Review Team to investigate who was responsible for the failings in the organisation.
UTV obtained a trail of emails prompting questions about the independence of the government-appointed inquiry.