WESTERN BUREAU – Mayor of Montego Bay, Councillor Noel Donaldson, yesterday said he intends to call in the police, by the end of the week, to investigate what he described as an invoice-padding scam by an officer of the St James Parish Council.

During the local authority’s monthly meeting, Donaldson maintained that he had been approached by two persons who told him that a council officer had instructed them to overbill for the MontegoBay/Atlanta Sister City Committee banquet held last October. The two individuals, the mayor said, told him of a plan to divert a percentage of the fee to the council employee.

According to Observer sources, the mayor received his information from a caterer and a videographer, and the sum involved is $110,000.

The allegation of invoice-padding was first raised during yesterday’s meeting by councillor for the Flankers Division, Charles Sinclair. He said he had tried, during Wednesday’s finance committee meeting, to clarify how the funds were spent but had not received a satisfactory answer from one of the council’s main organisers of the banquet.

According to the councillor, a similar banquet held last May and handled by the same caterer had cost far less than the October bash. In the May banquet, Sinclair added, the guests were charged per plate, while for the October dinner, they were charged for tables, cutlery and dinner wear.

“I found it exorbitant, so I called someone who is in the business of providing banquet tables and cutlery …and the person told me that the cost would be about $27,000. I rounded it off to $30,000, which is a difference of $80,000,” Sinclair noted.

During yesterday’s meeting, secretary/manager Christopher Powell challenged the mayor to substantiate his allegations or keep quiet on the matter as the claims were serious and could damage the council’s administration.