Fire and Rescue NSW spent millions of dollars on a rebranding exercise and paid one alleged "friend" of the commissioner $6000 a day to act as a consultant.
Strategist Dr Marc Stigter, whose relationship with dumped commissioner Paul Baxter has come under scrutiny, earned more than $700,000 over three years helping to develop a strategic plan for FRNSW.
FRNSW Acting Commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell on Wednesday told a parliamentary inquiry into the use of consultants he was "far from comfortable" with the amount Dr Stigter was paid.
The relationship between Mr Baxter and Dr Stigter, including allegations the pair are friends, was examined by the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC).
Labor Legislative Council member Mark Buttigieg, who sits on the inquiry, echoed concerns from the Fire Brigade Employees Union over a lack of oversight that allowed the perceived overspend.
"You've got this culture that allowed the former commissioner to pretty much employ what looks like a friend on pretty good money to do a 'Mickey Mouse' exercise," Mr Buttigieg said.
FRNSW said a report overseen by ICAC into the hiring of Dr Stidter's firm found no evidence of corruption or misconduct.
Mr Fewtrell said the service created the strategic plan, dubbed Plus Plan, to better convey to the public and elements of the government what it does beyond responding to structure fires.
One of the measures was to change the "&" symbol in the organisation's logo to a "+" to represent additional roles beyond fire and rescue.
Several inquiry members pointed out the name of the organisation is self-explanatory.
"I don't think in the community there's any confusion that a 'Fire and Rescue' organisation undertakes fire and rescue," One Nation Upper House member Mark Latham said.
Marketing consultancy firm Brand Council was also paid about $500,000 to help with the plan, contributing to a 137 per cent increase in consultant expenditure since Mr Baxter took over the FRNSW in 2017.
Mr Fewtrell told the inquiry about $1.67 million was spent developing the plan in 2017-18, on top of $757,000 the following year, and ongoing costs for Dr Stigter's input.
Inquiry chair Abigail Boyd noted FRNSW was continuing to spend large amounts of public money on consultants, including paying $294,000 to big four firm Deloitte this year to create a "2050 vision proposal document".
Fire Brigade Employees Union state secretary Leighton Drury called Deloitte's proposal which explores the use of exoskeletons, Artificial Intelligence and robots, “pie in the sky nonsense”.
"‘We've been here for 140 years. Things don't change that much, funnily enough," he said.
"You go from horses to diesel, we'll probably move to electric. You still need to put water on a fire."
The committee estimated FRNSW has spent about $18 million on consultants since 2010.
