Education has another contract with $50,000 Sydney outfit Reputation Pty Ltd, on top of the $95,000 revealed by Fairfax Media last week.

The second contract, which wasn’t disclosed to a Senate committee asking about the department’s PR spend, was for provision of "communication and strategic advice"

The Canberra Times reported last week that Education hired the public relations consultants for 24 days in January and February this year to provide specialist advice to cope with life after "machinery of government" changes left it as a standalone department.

A departmental spokesman said the Sydney-based PR outfit had undertaken "a specialist communication services review and audit" for Education.

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Reputation’s $95,000 bill means it was paid $5587 for each working day of the contract at a time of dwindling budgets, downsizing and redundancies across the public service.

The department, which shares a 67-strong communications team with the Employment Department in Canberra, refused to make the consultant’s report public.

The government’s tender website AusTender reveals that Education has another deal with Reputation to supply $50,000 of “communication and strategic advice” between February and April.

A departmental spokesman said the consultants were still helping Education set up its spin unit after the old Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations was split into four different departments.

“In order to do this, the department engaged the specialist services of Reputation Pty Ltd, first to review the existing capacity and then for a single person from Reputation Pty Ltd to lead the beginning of the implementation process within the Communications team,” the spokesman said.

“This contract will be finished soon and then there will be a standard public service management position in place.”