The Ministry of Health and Family Services is looking for a new firm of accountants to take care of the finances and administration of parish councils.

An invitation to tender has appeared in the media and information packages describing the work, scope and parameters of the assignment have been made available.

Health Minister Nelson Bascome said the accounting firm who has previously done the books has come to the end of its two-year contract, so Government decided to put the new contract out to tender.

Mr. Bascome said under the previous United Bermuda Party Government, each of the nine parish councils had their own clerks to take care of the finances and administration.

But he said each one operated separately and the system was often not very efficient.

He said: "There were nine different clerks getting paid to do a service, and when we added up what we were paying them, we could have paid four or five accounting firms. We decided to employ one accounting firm to take care of them all, which has been much more efficient.

"The Accountant General has even commented on how efficient it is."

Included in the finances of the councils, will be the accounts of rest homes in Devonshire, Pembroke and Warwick, which fall under the jurisdiction of parish councils.

"It's a big job."