A temporary replacement for the chief financial officer at the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency ended up making nearly $262,000 — $34,000 more than the full-time president and CEO – because it took the agency 10 months to fill the job.

The temporary replacement was Michael Barone of Barone Associates, who previously served as managing director of PriceWaterhouse Coopers and before that worked 14 years at Harvard University.

Barone was paid $1,650 a day if he worked three days a week and $225 an hour for any time beyond that. He collected a total of $261,603, most of it for working from July 2012 to April 2013, when Simon Gerlin was hired as the permanent chief financial officer. Barone stayed on and did miscellaneous work for the agency from April through July 2013.

MassDevelopment officials did not say why it took so long to find a permanent CFO. Barone, in an interview, said he couldn’t answer that question. He said he was paid his regular rate.

MassDevelopment is the state’s finance and development agency. During fiscal 2013, the authority helped finance or manage 350 projects generating investment of more than $2.4 billion in the Massachusetts economy. It is one of the state’s 40 or so quasi-public authorities, which were created to operate outside the regular state bureaucracy, often relying on their own funding sources.

Consultants typically are paid higher rates than full-time employees because they receive no benefits, but Barone’s pay was unusually high. Gerlin, the current CFO, is being paid $183,600 a year. John Champion, the agency’s previous CFO, was paid $190,000. Marty Jones, the president and CEO, makes $228,000 a year.

Glen Shor, the governor’s secretary of administration and finance, who effectively works as the CFO of the commonwealth, makes $154,500 a year, while Shor’s boss, Gov. Deval Patrick, makes $151,800 a year.

Gregory Sullivan, the research director at the Pioneer Institute and a former inspector general, said the payments for a temporary fill-in as CFO seem to reflect “an attitude of pervasive indifference with the public’s money. This points out yet again that Massachusetts’ fourth branch of government, the quasi-independent agencies, need to be reined in.”