Fewer high ranking Catholics serve in the PSNI than during the old RUC regime's last days, a report revealed today.
And departing Oversight Commissioner Al Hutchinson, the man monitoring reforms to the force, claimed little effort is being made to recruit top officers from outside to ease the religious imbalance.
However, in his final assessment of the policing overhaul mapped out by former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten's Commission, Mr Hutchinson said the future was bright with major changes completed and public trust growing.
But even though 140 of the 175 recommendations contained in the reform blueprint have been completed, the Commissioner warned major challenges remained.
One area of concern centred on the reduction in Catholics in top positions, in contrast to the hugely successful overall 50:50 recruitment drive.
The PSNI now has more than 21 per cent Catholics, compared with just 8 per cent in 1999. But Mr Hutchinson insisted more needed to be done further up the organisation.
"The Police Service has provided no evidence demonstrating an effort to identify senior Northern Ireland Catholic officers serving in other police services as a means to address the community background imbalance in the senior ranks," his report said.
"While this appears to be, in part, based on the perceived difficulty in making such identification, it has made no sustained effort to action this potential source of Catholic officers.
"Catholics in the senior ranks stood at 16 per cent in 1999 and now stands at 12 per cent, in a large part due to the number of senior Catholic officers taking advantage of severance."
Mr Hutchinson, a former Assistant Commissioner with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, also called for the promised stg£130 million Police Training College to be built.