The White House on Thursday defended its decision to significantly expand the ranks of public relations specialists on the executive payroll during President Obama’s time in office, and cast it as a transparency exercise that’s needed to ensure officials are communicating “effectively” to the public.

The Obama administration has spent more than $1.5 billion on government public relations staffers a year, as well as additional private-sector communications specialists, since the president took office, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Wednesday.