The Premier's race relations consultant Rolfe Commissiong has been paid $170,000.

And Senator Marc Bean earns $153,000 for consultation work provided to the Cabinet Office.

The figures were revealed in Parliamentary Questions earlier this week.

Lobbyist Darlene Richeson earned $313,000 to set up Bermuda's yet-to-be-staffed Washington DC office and develop a long-term strategic plan for Government to work with the US Congress. Her monthly rate is $20,000.

Washington DC-based Public Private Partnership Inc. — which UK papers have credited with the idea to resettle the four Guantánamo detainees here — earned $150,000 between April and December 2009.

The firm has been tasked with providing political consultancy related to the executive branch of the US federal government. The firm is led by a former Obama campaign strategist.

The answers to the Parliamentary Questions filed by the United Bermuda Party listed consultants for the Cabinet Office.

Mr. Commissiong was the top earning local consultant, being paid $8,600 a month from 1st of May through 31st of January 2010 for the Bermuda Race Relations Initiative (BRRI), work on the Young Black Male Study and establish a visa waiver assistance programme.

Eudora Browne Zuill, a former criminologist and youth counsellor, was the second highest paid local consultant, earning $8,650 a month since August 2008 to research and draft policy statements.

Sen. Bean was paid $7,700 a month between May 2008 and January 2010 to review the Bermuda Independence Commission and offer advice on the report, as well as attend to CARICOM matters and assist with the BRRI.

Senator Walton Brown was paid $62,000, or $3,000 a month, for a visa project "to secure visa-free access to Bermuda passport holders".

Opposition leader Kim Swan, who submitted the questions, said: "You have to consider some of these appointments in light of the fact that the Premier likes to surround himself with an entourage of personal assistants. When you look at the job assignments and the amount of monies paid out for them, you have to wonder if some of these people are the best people for the job.

"It is our view that the expenditures for some of these posts are not justified. If someone audited their output and the costs incurred, you would be hard-pressed to say the cost is justified."