TONY Abbott has established a covert political hit squad which is funded by taxpayers, operates outside parliamentary scrutiny and has a controversial leader.

The under-the-radar Coalition Advisory Service supplies Government backbenchers with media information and ammunition to aim at the Labor Opposition. It has offices in Parliament House.

The Government says it is there to “provide training support to Government members and senators and their staff to assist them in servicing their constituents and ensuring the efficient and effective operation of electorate officers”.

But its detailed activities have been kept confidential — although it is known as CAS and has a sharply political role serving the Government.

It’s head is Simon Berger, the former Woolworths executive who left the company after organising the auction of a “chaff-bag jacket” at a September 2012 Young Liberal fundraising dinner addressed by Sydney broadcaster Alan Jones.

The chaff-bag referred to on-air comments by Mr Jones that then Prime Minister Julia Gillard should be put in one and dumped at sea.

Under CAS, Mr Berger has a staff of at least six but a potential allocation of 10.

They are paid from $75,000 to $175,000 a year, news.com.au has been told, and so far have been issued laptops and mobile telephones worth a total of close to $22,000.

The Labor Opposition has been trying to get more details about CAS operations at Estimates hearings where ministers and their department heads are questioned about spending.

However, CAS is not the responsibility of a minister.

It operates under Government Whip Philip Ruddock who, as he’s not a minister, does not have his spending examined at Estimates grillings.

Both Labor and the Coalition have set up offices similar to CAS when in government. That’s one reason why the Opposition knows it has a largely political role.

One of the most controversial was Labor’s National Media Liaison Service (known as aNiMaLS) in the 1990s.

Its Labor successors include the Caucus Communications Team (CCT) and under the Coalition, the Government Members’ Secretariat.

Senior Labor senator John Faulkner wants these bodies to be subjected to scrutiny by being made the responsibility of the Special Minister of State, a job he once held.

However, the Coalition wants to keep it with the Chief Whip, the current Special Minister of State Michael Ronaldson said.

“I just want to be assured by you that there is no attempt to avoid transparency and accountability by having the employing parliamentarian be the Chief Whip in the House of Representatives, hence questions at Senate estimates committees become more difficult and more obtuse,” Senator Faulkner said to Senator Ronaldson at an Estimates hearing in November last year.

Senator Ronaldson replied there were “two schools of thoughts” about the issue.

“There is a view in some quarters that the Whip is the appropriate employer in that situation and that you should keep it out of a minister’s office because there may well be risks associated,” he said.

“It will seem to be a political office. But I am not hung up on whether it is the Special Minister of State or the Chief Whip. I am sure that, if you ask questions about it, they will be answered.”

Labor has had six questions about CAS listed for the past month without answers.

However, it is known that CAS has a staffing allocation of 10 with one chief of staff at level 2, one senior adviser at band 1, five advisers, two assistant advisers and one executive assistant/office manager.