Government was last night blasted over its spending of taxpayers' money on a PR consultant -- after failing for five days to answer the most basic of questions on the issue.

Despite Premier Jennifer Smith's apparent desire to be more open with the media and public, she has repeatedly ignored questions asked by The Royal Gazette on the subject.

The Premier revealed last Monday in the House of Assembly that she had commissioned the services of a public relations guru to help the Progressive Labour Party be more accessible and open with the public, media and Opposition.

The following day, The Royal Gazette called Government Information Services (GIS) to find out what had prompted the move, who the consultant was, who they would be working with, and, most importantly, what the end result would be for the public.

The questions were e-mailed by GIS to the Premier and three of her staff.

However, for five days the questions have gone completely unanswered.

And to the newspaper's knowledge, the Premier has not even acknowledged that the questions were raised in the first place -- despite being chased up by GIS.

Last night Leader of the Opposition Pamela Gordon asked why Government was spending taxpayers' money on a consultant that would boost the image of the Progressive Labour Party.

She said: "I find it completely shocking that a cost that would normally be attributed to a political party is being paid for by the taxpayer.

"We have seen this happen before. When they attended the Labour conferences in the UK, the cost was met by the taxpayer. That is a partly political matter.

"People don't want to seem to ask questions. The Opposition has asked questions on the public's behalf, but Government sees no obligation to answer us.'' And Ms Gordon said with spending like this, it was no wonder Jennifer Smith had become the million dollar Premier.

She added: "Never in the history of the country have we spent as much specifically on the trappings for and around the Premier that we are seeing now.

"She has become the million dollar Premier. The tab that would normally be picked up by the political party, the taxpayer is now paying.'' She cited the Premier's house keeper, personal security, PR consultant and driver as contributing toward the $1 million cost.

Gordon questions appointment A GIS spokeswoman said she had chased up the queries posed by the press periodically, but to no avail, and she said the Premier was busier than usual because of the Budget debates.

However, Shadow Finance Minister Grant Gibbons said much of the Premier's work in relation to the Budget was now done, with the minister's now being more involved in the debates concerning their ministries.

And he questioned why the PR guru had been brought in when no effort was being made by Government to correct the problems surrounding the flow of information.

He said: "We, as the opposition, have been kept in the dark as much as everyone else.

"This incident (over the PR consultant) is not surprising given the pattern of non-responsiveness which has been well established by Government.

"It's apparent the Premier won't respond to the press and now her Government is not even responding in a timely manner to Parliamentary questions.

"We are as curious as everyone else as to what this person (consultant) is for when Government still seems to communicate only when it suits them and as little as possible.

"We certainly wonder why the taxpayer had to foot a $150,000 bill in this circumstance.'' But Dr. Gibbons also said the Opposition did not even know how much in total had been spent on the consultant as the Budget had stipulated an "additional provision for communications consultant'' amounting to $150,000.

He added: "It said `additional' so it may or may not be the entire amount paid for the PR consultant. We simply don't know.'' Pam Gordon