Cornwall Council is continuing to spend millions of pounds on outside consultants and agency staff.

A freedom of information request to the authority has shown that over the last 22 months a total of £21,411,368, including all the associated costs, has been spent.

One of the highest costs was for the commercial lead role in the strategic partnership project, described as one of the biggest service privatisations’ Cornwall Council has ever undertaken.

The position has only been active since April 2012, but, in the three and a half months to mid-July, has earned pay to the tune of £67,349.35 – well over £4,400 a week, and a yearly salary of more than £230,000.

Other notable amounts include £146,224 paid to a finance manager in 2011-2012, £116,654 to a project manager in the same period and £112,050 to a human resources manager, also in 2011-2012.

Councillor Andrew Wallis, independent member for Porthleven and Helston South, said the figures were hard to justify.

He said: “No matter which way you want to dress it up, Cornwall Council has and still continues to use these type of staff. The cost is not a few thousand of pounds either. It is many millions.

“An often used line of, ‘you have to pay to get the right people’ is a little hard to swallow when some of the temporary staff are paid nearly three-times the amount an average Cornish worker gets paid a year. And this is only for a few months.”

Mr Wallis said that he “took a big gulp”, when he realised the total figure, adding: “The leader has often said the council is reducing consultants/temp/agency staff, but spending over £21m does not look like it. Let’s just wait to hear the excuses that will come out in the next few days.”

A spokesman from Cornwall Council said: “It is normal practice for organisations to use agency staff in the normal people management of service delivery. “We use temporary staff to cover key vacancies where we are recruiting staff and there is a time delay as a result of difficulties in recruiting permanent people with the right skills and experience; to manage increased workload in specific areas or to cover sickness.

“In 2011/2012 the costs of employing such staff represents just three per cent of our total salary budget, with the majority of these staff employed in areas such as social care.

“Over the past two years the council has deliberately taken posts out of the establishment to cut down its staffing costs. This has helped put the authority in a strong financial position. We have already delivered significant efficiency savings by implementing big organisational changes and introducing more effective business systems.

“These efficiency savings are helping us to support and maintain front line services in Cornwall in the face of considerable financial challenges. A new central system for recruiting temporary staff was introduced in 2010 to provide greater control over this area of expenditure. This has already delivered more than £650k savings.

“The majority of interim roles in the top ten highest paid list have been supporting three major programmes to transform the way we deliver a range of key services, which, together, will save council taxpayers in Cornwall more than £50 million over the next few years.”