The city’s health department is reviewing the work of a restaurant inspector who failed last week to shut down a KFC/Taco Bell in Greenwich Village that was infested with rats.

The move comes as the Department of Investigation confirmed it would investigate the case, which captured public attention on February 23 when several press and broadcast outlets carried images of rats scurrying around the restaurant on Sixth Avenue. One day earlier, a health inspector said the franchise passed his inspection.

Addressing reporters yesterday, the city’s health commissioner, Thomas Frieden, acknowledged that the inspector in question had not taken appropriate action, and said the inspector has been removed from inspection duty. “The Health Department’s inspection the day before the restaurant was closed was not up to standard and that is unacceptable,” he said.

According to records released yesterday, the inspector, who has been conducting inspections since June, observed rat droppings in food preparation areas on February 22 but allowed the restaurant to remain open.

After several complaints, however, another inspector recorded several health department violations at the restaurant, including open holes “allowing vermin entry” in the kitchen’s ceiling area. “Fresh rat droppings were observed throughout this facility,” the inspector wrote in a report dated February 23 that described rat droppings on top of a food preparation counter, under a refrigerator and an ice machine, and in the restaurant’s basement.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Investigations, Diane Steruzzi, yesterday declined to elaborate on the pending investigation. “It will encompass a review of all relevant reports and records,” she said.

However, health officials said their investigation would focus on the initial inspector, that inspector’s supervisor, and health department policies that allowed the infested restaurant to slip through the cracks. Health officials also said they would investigate at least 20 other restaurants that may also be owned by the owners of the franchise, identified as ADF Fifth Operating Corporation.

Calls to the corporation were not immediately returned yesterday.

Addressing reporters yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg acknowledged that rodents can be a problem in large cities. Asked if there was any indication the inspector had been bribed, he said there was not.

Meanwhile, employees at nearby stores yesterday said the people who worked at the now-infamous KFC/Taco Bell failed to keep it clean. “I never ate it and now I’m happy that I never at it,” an employee at Crazy Fantasy Tattoo, Emma Ben, said.