That was the question the Brisbane City Council opposition leader and independent councillor were asking the administration on Tuesday, when it was revealed the council has awarded a three-year, $12 million contract for the printing of marketing material.

Labor councillor Milton Dick and independent councillor Nicole Johnston went on the attack over the expenditure, which both claimed was funding "glossy brochures" such as the Living in Brisbane newsletter that promotes the activities of the Lord Mayor and the council.

But finance chairman Julian Simmonds rejected the claims, saying the bulk of the council's printing expenditure was on organisational-wide corporate marketing, such as official council letterheads, photocopying and business cards.

The figure was revealed in the June contracts and tendering report presented at Tuesday's council meeting.

"It goes far beyond Living in Brisbane," he said.

"The vast majority of that contract is corporate printing.

"All the brochures, such as Living in Brisbane and Business in Brisbane, are line items in the budget, we're upfront with how much we spend on those."

Cr Dick said he was "deeply concerned" about the contracts and tendering, which also included the awarding of a $1 million, three year contract for corporate travel.

"This council has an addiction problem when it comes to travel and marketing costs," he said.

"$12 million on marketing collateral show you have the wrong priorities.

"I am disgusted we are being asked to endorse such an obscene amount of money."

Cr Simmonds said the LNP administration had dramatically slashed travel costs in comparison to the final years of the Labor administration early last decade.

He said while the current administration had allocated up to $1 million over three years, the final years of the last Labor administrations cost ratepayers $1.4 million annually for overseas travel.

"We won't meet that million dollars over the three year period because I know how much we spend each year on travel...all of our travel is on the (council) website," he said.

Cr Johnston expressed concern that of the 21 contracts awarded, eight had not gone through a competitive tender process.

"These decisions have been made by council officers, these powers have been delegated away, what we have now is a process where there is no competitive process for major projects, officers are locking this council into signficiant financial contracts and that is of concern," she said,

"Anyone interested in good governance and trasnparency would be concerned."

However, Cr Simmonds said when the State Government had gone through recent similar tender processes, such as that for corporate travel, it was not necessary for council to also go through the process.

"We must be mindful of the market and the best value for money for ratepayers," he said.

"Tender processes are expensive, for council and business, in this case the state government has recently been through a tender process to find the best travel provider.

"The state government has received the best price available in the market, which means we can then piggyback off the buying power of the state government."