Bermuda Public Services Union general secretary Ed Ball has hit out at Government for wasting taxpayers? money on ?useless consultants?.

It comes after it was revealed an extra $8 million had been budgeted this year for external consultants in the Ministry of Works and Engineering and Housing ? equivalent to almost one third of the extra $25 million put aside to build housing this year.

Mr. Ball said Government had refused to say how many consultants were now employed in all departments after his union raised alarm bells. He said: ?We are seeing people retained when the union has had an issue in terms of their management and they are causing further embarrassment.

?There are people without any use or skill set. Normally consultants are brought in to do specialist work no-one else can do ? they bring in a prerequisite skill set.

?But we are being embarrassed by people who don?t know a thing, some of them. Some of them are without any use.?

Instead of bringing expertise, the special hirings were then asking civil servants for advice on what to do said Mr. Ball.

Under the old system consultants were paid out of Cabinet Office funds only when a Cabinet paper had been done to justify it with a strict time limit put on the appointment.

?We would like there to be renewed vigilance on consultants coming in,? he said. ?I don?t think anything is being done to reinstate the control the BPSU always had with former Secretaries to the Cabinet. They were always limited. What we are finding is anyone can make a case for a consultant.?

He claimed friends, associates or business partners of Ministers were being employed, sometimes just as personal assistants.

?Our members are saying in some cases it is causing a major problem within. I have asked for a breakdown from Cabinet ? they would not give it.?

Mr. Ball said consultants were appearing everywhere, including Tourism, Marine and Ports and Works and Engineering.

Although admitting resignations and retirements in the civil service had caused a brain drain making some consultant hiring necessary, Mr. Ball questioned whether any controls were left.

Now civil servants posts are remaining empty with the cash going to fund consultants, said Mr. Ball. ?They are deliberately not hiring civil servants.?