Tee announced that he would be leaving today in an internal letter to Whitehall directors of comms, leaked to PRWeek.
The letter sent by Tee revealed that he would not be replaced as permanent secretary.
Tee also announced that he would be conducting a review of the COI and cross departmental marketing co-ordination, working with COI chief executive Mark Lund, 'to ensure that we are well placed to respond to the challenges of the future'.
Tee wrote: 'The work to reconfigure parts of Government communication, including COI, and to make very significant savings in departmental communications will be very challenging. I recognise that it will be difficult to justify a Permanent Secretary role as head of a smaller communications profession and I am going to seek fresh challenges after overseeing the review of COI and the transition for Government communications.'
Tee was hired in early 2009, replacing Howell James, who vacated the permanent secretary job after four years to become corporate affairs director at Barclays.
Tee is the highest earning government communicator, with an annual wage between £160,000 and £165,000 a year.
Tee was acting director of comms at the DH while Jarvis was on maternity leave in 2006 and 2007. He has also been director of news at the Department of Trade and Industry (now BERR).
