Taxpayers paid out more than $284,000 in compensation to three successive board chairmen of a little known Crown corporation called the Canadian Commercial Corporation, CBC News has learned.

The job was supposed to be a "part-time" position with "incidental" compensation, according to the website of the Privy Council Office.

The bulk of that compensation was paid in what the government calls per diems, a sort of daily rate for extra work.

These kinds of per diems are typically paid to board members to compensate for their time spent travelling to, preparing for and attending board meetings. They might also get an honorarium for attending a conference for the agency they represent.

In the case of the three chairmen for the Canadian Commercial Corporation, the majority of the per diems appear unrelated toof the per diems paid to the board chairs and reviewed by CBC News fell into the "special" category.

Washington reception

The most recent chairman of the CCC board, Ray Castelli, claimed the least amount in per diems of the three board chairs reviewed by CBC News. Still, more than half of his per diems appear unrelated to attendance at board meetings, including $1,500 for four days for a reception in Washington.

Castelli was appointed by the former Conservative government in 2012. In the 1990s he worked as a political staffer for Conservative Kim Campbell while she was minister of national defence and also during her brief stint as prime minister.

He is the CEO of a Vancouver-based company called Weatherhaven, which makes portable shelters, largely for military applications.

Robert Kay is a