SNP ministers have secretly tasked a civil servant with finding efficiency savings to help them meet their manifesto pledge of creating 1000 more police jobs.

Today's revelation will fuel criticism from political opponents that a pre-election pledge by Alex Salmond to recruit the extra 1000 officers from a £78m fund is going to be broken.

Leading figures in the Scottish Police Federation are already accusing the First Minister of "a disgrace" in betraying a promise he made to their conference earlier this year.

Before the election, Mr Salmond told the media and the federation that he would deploy 1000 extra officers and that £78m had been set aside for the task. The SNP manifesto promises "1000 more police" and refers to these "officers becoming part of the fabric of communities".

But The Herald can today reveal that Colin Miller, a senior official in the Scottish Government's justice department, has been working full-time on a project to see where savings can be achieved.

He has projected around 500 officers can be released to become "beat bobbies", but from ideas piloted by the previous Labour-LibDem administration, while hundreds more could be achieved through the controversial centralisation of the ICT and technology functions of all eight Scottish police forces, a move which will anger chief constables.

Ministers are expected to announce next month that they have saved the equivalent of 200 to 250 officers as a result of introducing Fixed Penalty Notices, and the same number through the imminent roll-out of new handheld electronic devices, which cut down on paperwork.

Mr Miller, who has been involved with the establishment of the Scottish Police Services Authority, has also produced a draft transfer order to move all ICT and technology away from the eight forces and police boards, to come under the umbrella of the authority. Some forces and police boards are thought to be furious at the move.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill will announce a combination of drives on recruitment, retention, and new technology. But even if some new officers are recruited, some 2000 are due to retire before 2011, and the police federation firmly believes efficiency savings do not equate to new officers.

Les Gray, chairman of the Strathclyde branch of the federation, said: "This is an absolute disgrace. I was there when Alex Salmond promised new money and new officers. To ensure there was no misunderstanding, I questioned him to clarify what he was saying. He said it wasn't an empty promise and if that was not enough, he could even look at bringing in more new officers.

"The bottom line is the public is not going to see a single extra police officer. They can dress it up and spin it any way they like, but there will be no increase and things like Fixed Penalty Notices have been in the pipeline for a long time."

Jackie Muller, head of the Lothian and Borders branch, added: "At the time of our conference, there were 16,200 officers in Scotland. Everyone in that audience understood he was promising to deliver 17,200. It was Alex Salmond speaking about Gordon Brown who said politicians can take 10 years to build up their credibility and a second to lose it. This is exactly what Salmond has now done."

Pauline McNeill, the Labour justice spokesman, said: "It is about time they came clean and admitted this is a promise they could not and cannot keep. Most of these so-called efficiency savings were put in place by the previous administration. They cannot possibly claim responsibility for them."

Annabel Goldie, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, was critical of the move. She said: "The SNP manifesto was explicit. One thousand more police, no ifs, no buts, no maybes.

"Over the past couple of weeks they have wriggled and squirmed and tried to pretend they meant something different. We don't buy it, the police don't buy it and the public won't be fooled."

However, Mr MacAskill said: "We will be making a significant announcement on making more police available in our communities in the context of the forthcoming Budget Bill. That will include substantial additional investment in recruitment and it is going to be good news for hard-pressed communities. Work began on delivering our commitment on policing as soon as we entered Government, and recruitment has always been central to that.

"Improved retention of experienced officers, more efficient use of officers, and exploiting new technology will also be part of the package - and rightly so. Scotland may have had more police officers than ever before, but it's clear that the public are not seeing the full benefit of that in their communities."