In the year to July 2014 alone, Victorians paid more than $96 million dollars for advertising by state departments and agencies, including the controversial Moving Victoria campaign promoting the East West Link and other transport projects.

The expenditure across the four-year term is likely to be much higher than recorded because the latest figures do not include the second half of the year, when the Napthine government embarked on a major marketing blitz ahead of November's election, or "production and other fees", which would have also bumped up the cost.

But the latest Victorian Government Advertising Report provides a broad snapshot of how much money goes into ads each year – an expense the Andrews government has vowed to reduce by setting up new guidelines overseen by the Auditor-General.

According to the latest data:

•  The Transport Accident Commission was the biggest spender between 2013-14, spending $18.9 million for a series of educational campaigns, followed by the Department of Transport, Planning and Local Infrastructure, whose ads for Moving Victoria, Plan Melbourne and the Premier's Active Families Challenge cost the state at least $8.3million (although the department's annual report has Moving Victoria costing almost $10 million).
• The Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation was the third biggest spender ($7.3 million) followed by the Victorian WorkCover Authority ($5.9 million) and the Department of Justice ($5.1 million).
• About $354 million was spent under the Coalition between January 2011 and July 2014, including $96.1 million last financial year - slightly less than the $98 million spent the year before.
• Most of last year's expenditure was on campaign ads ($80 million), which the government defines as "advertising designed to inform, motivate, educate or change behaviour". The rest went into functional ads - public notices, tender requests - and job ads.
• The former Brumby Labor government still holds the record for the biggest ad expenditure in any given year - $130 million in 2009-10 – and about $416 million overall during its term.

Political parties have repeatedly come under fire forpromising in opposition to end using advertising for propaganda and spin, only to renege in government.

In the lead-up to the 2010 election, then opposition leader Ted Baillieu vowed to set up a five-member independent panel - headed by a retired judge - to vet taxpayer-funded ads and make sure they were not overtly political.

However, once in government, the Coalition instead created a three-member panel headed by former Howard government bureaucrat Greg Williams, which was based in the Premier's department.

The Andrews government has pledged to set up new advertising guidelines, which will be overseen by Victoria's Auditor-General.

Flagging the changes on the eve of the election, Treasurer Tim Pallas told reporters that if Labor was to win government, it would prove that party-political advertising didn't work, "and if it doesn't work, then why are we wasting taxpayers' money doing it?"

The government has said it will introduce the changes by the end of this year.