The Tourism department has spent more than $2.3 million dollars on overseas consultants since 1998 Minister Renee Webb revealed Friday.

Opposition MP Allan Marshall has been badgering her for months for information on consultant costs in Tourism, Telecommunications and E-Commerce ministries which she covers. He was angry she ignored Parliament and went to the media with limited information earlier this week but Minister Renee Webb finally released more detailed information about the consultants in a written response to the House.

Large items show US firm the Freeman Group were paid more than 900,000 for hospitality training while On The Frontier, also from America were paid three quarters of a million dollars for "professional services".

The Bermuda branch of Ernst and Young (E&Y) were paid $174,000 for IT consultancy work. The total for Tourism came to $2,309,420. Ms Webb revealed the Department of Telecommunications had spent $395,891 since 1998. The largest fees included $110,000 spent on legal advice from Dalfen Associates of Canada, $73,000 spent on "licencing computer system development" to the local E&Y and $72,000 spent on the same purpose to Paragon Bermuda Ltd.

The Department of E-Commerce spent $85,000 with $46,000 going to Walton Brown's Research Innovations Ltd for an E Business survey. The rest of the money was split between two UK firms. The Department of Computer Systems and Services was the largest spender with $3,434,324 going on consultants.

UK Accountants KPMG were paid more than $1,600,000 for "customs IT consulting and design" while the local E & Y got more than $1,100,000 for "design, programming, project management and network support".

Bermuda's Marbull Computing Services got $306,228 for advice on Y2K.