Our Post Office is in crisis... So why is its 3m boss having fun in the sun?

Splashing through turquoise waters of a Barbados beach, this was how Britain's best-paid civil servant managed to avoid the dreary Bank Holiday weekend.

Adam Crozier  -  the Royal Mail chief presiding over thousands of post office closures  -  flew out day after it was revealed he was paid a staggering £3.04million last year  -  more than any other public worker.

Bright outlook: It certainly is for Adam Crozier as he enjoys his break in Barbados

His extraordinary bonanza at taxpayers' expense was branded obscene by an MP and immoral by a trade union at a time when he is shutting 2,500 post offices, tearing the heart out of villages and towns, and facing a national strike.

Not that any such clouds appeared on Mr Crozier's Caribbean horizon.

With the warm surf lapping at his ankles, he looks as though he doesn't have a care in the world.

Mr Crozier, 44, and his family are staying at Sandy Lane, one of the world's finest hotels, enjoying the comforts of a luxury suite costing £800 a night.

An onlooker said: 'He has been out every day on a jetski, zooming around the bay, and he's already looking tanned.'

Mr Crozier, the former head of the Football Association responsible for hiring Sven Goran Eriksson as England manager, travelled to Barbados first-class last Saturday on a British Airways jet where luxury seats start at £3,330.

There again, £3,330 is less than half a day's wages for him. Details of his pay  packet were revealed in Royal Mail's annual report published late last Friday afternoon.

Billy Hayes, of the Communication Workers' Union, described it as an ' outrageous use of public money', adding that the pay award was a huge insult to Royal Mail staff and the public.

But Royal Mail chairman Allan Leighton has insisted Mr Crozier is worth every penny, saying: 'The group, led by Adam and the team, has consistently exceeded expectations and met all the targets set by the shareholder.'

CROZIER'S WORLD

• He earned £3million last year.
• His basic salary was £633,000.
• On top of that, he got £400,000 in pension and bonus payments.
• And a whopping £1,993,000 from a long-term incentive scheme.
• In 2005 he collected £2.7million.
• He has closed 4,600 post offices.
• And is shutting 2,500 more.
• He abolished the second post.
•  Now the first post often does not arrive until the afternoon.
• Fifteen million letters a year are lost.
• the universal postal service lost £100million this year.
• Last year's strike cost the Post Office £10million and British businesses £300million.