Jack Welch will now pay for his perks as government regulators look into his employment contract with General Electric.

Welch, GE's former CEO and chairman, said Monday he would pay for GE facilities and services that he uses, except for office and administrative support. He has been under intense criticism since reports have surfaced regarding his retirement package, which gave him several perks, including unfettered access to GE corporate boxes in sports venues, unlimited use of a GE plane and a company-owned apartment in Manhattan. Details surfaced in divorce papers filed by Welch's wife.

Under a new deal that GE's board agreed to on Thursday, Welch will pay GE an estimated $2 million to $2.5 million annually to use General Electric's assets. He also said he would provide consulting services to the company for free. GE will provide office and administrative support, which have been provided traditionally to all retired GE chairmen and vice-chairmen, the company said.

The contract was revised a day before the Securities and Exchange Commission asked GE to cooperate with an "informal" investigation into Welch's employment contract, General Electric said in a news release Monday. Accounting scandals at Worldcom and Enron, among others, have prompted the SEC this year to step up its investigation of corporate complaints.

Details of Welch's retirement genefits have been in every GE proxy filed with the SEC since 1996.

"In today's reality, my 1996 employment contract could be misportrayed as an excessive retirement package, rather than what it is -- part of a fair employment and post-employment contract made six years ago," Welch wrote in Monday's Wall Street Journal. "For GE and its board to be dragged into these stories because of a divorce dispute is just plain wrong."

Welch has maintained that his original contract was reasonable compensation for staying at General Electric longer than he had intended. During a Sept. 13 interview with Wall $treet Week with FORTUNE, Welch defended the retirement package."I fulfilled my obligations and the company fulfilled theirs," he told Wall $treet Week co-host Geoff Colvin.

Monday's Journal piece reiterated those sentiments. However, perception matters, Welch said. "And in these times when public confidence and trust have been shaken, I've learned the hard way that perception matters more than ever," he wrote. "In this environment, I don't want a great company with the highest integrity dragged into a public fight because of my divorce proceedings."