The Ministry of Health spent almost $300,000 on consultants for its watchdog over a 21-month period.

Between April 1, 2008 and January 31, 2010, approximately $284,537 was spent on advisors for the Bermuda Health Council (BHeC).

Seventy-five thousand dollars of that was paid to the board chairman Linda Merritt for a period of months to "assist with specific operationals".

And $12,500 was spent on headhunting for a chief executive officer when the interim CEO, Jennifer Attride-Stirling, was given the job.

Health Minister Walter Roban justified the expenses for the BHeC saying they were necessary to ensure proper leadership for the organisation.

He said: "Ms. Merritt was the chair at the time and in that role was paid a minimal amount of $100 per meeting as an honorarium to chair the council.

"The Minister requested the chair, for a fixed period, to work in a full-time role in the Health Council to assist with specific operational deliverables. In that regards, she was contracted for that work.

"Dr. Jennifer Attride-Stirling was not and could not be appointed to the role of CEO of the Health Council by the Government.

"As a quango, the council is responsible for the hiring of their CEO with approval of the Minister. In this regard, Dr. Attride-Stirling was seconded to the council to assist in a temporary capacity whilst they undertook recruitment of a permanent CEO.

"That role did not promise to be her full-time post with the Health Council. Additionally, and rightly so, the Health Council were intent on pursuing an open and transparent recruitment process."

Other expenses included $42,705 paid to company emedia to develop a new website, to help with rebranding and assist with a strategic launch, and to conduct ongoing technical maintenance of the website.

And more than $4,000 was paid for photos of the council members including file photos of the chairman and CEO for the annual report, strategic plan and website.

Yesterday, Dr. Attride-Stirling, the BHeC CEO explained the council needed to employ consultants because of the small size of the group.

She said: "We are a very small team at BHeC and we need to do things like an actuarial review to make recommendations to the Ministry. In order to do that we need to hire an actuary.

"The eight staff we have don't include actuaries. Some of the work we do is highly technical and requires technical expertise.

"But it's just not cost effective to have an actuary on staff for three months of work. It's more economical to hire a consultant for work of this nature."