Taxpayers spent nearly $400,000 on consultants to Premier Paula Cox’s departments in her first eight months as leader.Advisers hired by the Cabinet Office make up the bulk of the sum, with former Minister Renee Webb, former Senator Walton Brown and former race consultant Rolfe Commissiong all currently on the payroll.Washington-based Ms Webb, who advises Cabinet on European Union and UK relations, is paid $100,000 a year. Her contract runs from April 18 this year to March 31 next year; up to July 7, she had been paid just over $20,000.Mr Brown, of Research Innovations, is paid $4,000 per month as a special adviser on consular and visa relations. His contract runs from April 18 until the end of this year; as of July 7, he had been paid $12,500.Mr Commissiong, who led the Big Conversation under former Premier Ewart Brown, was retained to advance recommendations of the Mincy Report and facilitate Government’s visa waiver assistance programme.He is paid $7,300 per month; as of July 7 he had been paid $58,000 under Ms Cox’s leadership. His contract expires at the end of next month.Lobbyist Darlene Richeson was paid $20,000 per month to develop a long-term plan focusing on the US Congress and Administration in Washington; she was paid $120,000 between November and the end of her contract in April.Cyril Whitter, of Independent Management, is paid $250,000 per year to give advice on improving efficiency across Government; he was paid $145,000 in the first eight months of Ms Cox’s reign. Mr Whitter’s contract ends on August 31.That adds up to just over $350,000 from November 1 last year to July 7 this year, according to the statistics, which the Premier released in response to Parliamentary Questions from Shadow Finance Minister Bob Richards.In addition, in the Department of Communication and Information, which also falls under Ms Cox’s responsibilities, on-call CITV engineer Delano Ingham has been paid $16,000 so far; and former press secretary Arnold Minors, based in Canada, was paid $12,700 for research services. Terrance Bean, of Quest Consulting, has been paid $4,000 for providing technical service to the Statistics Department as it processes the Census results.Ms Cox has made cutting unnecessary costs a key focus under her leadership, announcing in February’s Budget that $79.4 million would be spent on professional services this fiscal year, down from $112 million two years ago.But the One Bermuda Alliance has continued to criticise spending on consultants, with some economists saying cancelling them altogether would help the Island bring its soaring debt under control.As part of her Parliamentary Responses to Mr Richards, Ms Cox said more efforts are now being made to ensure cash isn’t being wasted on consultants.She said Cabinet Secretary Donald Scott and Assistant Cabinet Secretary Judith Hall-Bean are on a new committee which vets all requests for new consultants.“This committee will not approve any requests unless a Permanent Secretary can prove that the request is absolutely necessary and there is no alternative to retaining the consultant,” stated the Premier.Other consultants named in Parliamentary Responses on Friday include Senator David Burt, of GMD Consulting, who has been paid more than $90,000 since November for providing IT support to the Transport Ministry.What do you think? E-mail news[AT]royalgazette.bm