Do you think that hiring prostitutes is an appropriate use of government funds? I don't.
I don't know if it's appropriate, but it's nothing new. One of our founding fathers did it. (See #58.)
The story doesn't even hint that they were. Except perhaps very indirectly and in the sense that any money government contractors have to spend on such "marketing" activities, comes ultimately from the government, as profit from previous contracts for example.