Taxpayers have been slugged $34 million so Defence can recruit and tell Australians how to get in touch Worth every dollar? The Department of Defence has been spending $34 million on ads and market research. TAXPAYERS forked out $316,000 last year so the Defence Department could list the same eight phone numbers in White Pages directories around the country. Regardless of where you are in Australia if you want to find a number for Defence, identical 1300 or 1800 listings come up for general enquires, defence recruiting, the defence business access office, defence whistleblower scheme, defence community organisation, or the `1800 I'm Sick' number. The expenditure was part of the department's $34.4 million outlay for 2012-13 on advertising and market research. Most of the taxpayer money was devoted to recruitment advertising despite the fact that the permanent military workforce fell by more than 540 people and the Reserve force suffered a decline of 346 people. The big winner last year was the New York based global advertising giant Universal McCann that scooped almost $20 million worth of Defence business. Defence also spent about $40 million on external consultants during the 2012-13 year which is down from $66 million the year before. About $1.6 billion worth of contracts let under the consultancies banner are exempt from examination by Commonwealth auditors. They included one from the Joint Operations Command with Worldwide Language Resources for $28 million worth of interpreter services and another for $220,000 with Engineers Australia for "memberships." Worldwide Language Resources (WWLR) is an American company with a mission statement that says, "WWLR provides the best quality services for the best price, in any language, anywhere, anytime, under any conditions." Engineers Australia is the peak body for engineers in Australia and it has more than 100,000 members including hundreds from the Defence Materiel Organisation. The contracts also included almost $500,000 from the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) to the powerful US Department of Homeland Security for a "research program." No further details were provided. According to official defence documents the department's total advertising spend was down by about $9 million compared with the previous year. The really big ticket audit exempt items came under the Defence Material Organisation (DMO) banner and it spent more than $1.4 billion on audit exempt contracts including more than $1.2 billion on Foreign Military Sales with the US Government. Items on the list include missiles, $20 million worth of explosive ordnance, a Chinook helicopter and spare parts. The Defence annual report reveals that grant funding by Defence fell from $71 million to $50 million last year. At the top of the taxpayer funded list of grants was the Afghan National Army Trust Fund with $38.6 million. Other big grant recipients were Legacy with $14 million, the Commando Welfare Trust with $8 million and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute with $3 million.