A mysterious construction plan which was signed, stamped and apparently back-dated but did not go through the established channels is being used to build an unapproved fourth floor on the multi-million dollar RIU Montego Bay Hotel in St James.

The plan, which appeared on the St James Parish Council files within the last two or three weeks, and for which the relevant fees were not received by the council, was signed by its Superintendent of Roads and Works, Tubal Brown, the mayor of Montego Bay, Charles Sinclair confirmed.

Sinclair has launched a full investigation into the matter and has requested an explanation from Brown as to how his signature and the council’s stamp appeared on the unapproved plan.

“This (second) plan only came about after I had visited the site three or four weeks ago and ordered the superintendent to give me a report on the hotel building,” the mayor said.

“It has not gone through the regular channels and was not logged with the council. We have no evidence of any fees being paid as would be required. Clearly, we have internal issues (in the council) which we are moving expeditiously to deal with,” Sinclair told the Sunday Observer, following a visit to the site by him and his team Wednesday and a subsequent meeting with RIU officials.

Brown is on his way to the St Ann Parish Council, following his transfer by the Parish Council Services Commission, a move Sinclair said had been in train before the current problem emerged.

Contacted by the Sunday Observer at a send-off function for him Friday, Brown said he had no comment. Sinclair did not attend the function.

The RIU hotel is being built at Mahoe Bay, about three kilometres east of the Sangster International Airport, putting it in the flight path of aircraft landing and taking off.

Not wanting to jeopardise the safety of aircraft using the airport, the St James Parish Council and the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) had earlier rejected the initial plan to build four floors and approved six three-storey buildings instead.

The scandal is the latest to hit a Spanish-owned hotel, construction of which has drawn the ire of environmentalists and community groups who accuse the hotels of flouting local laws.

RIU also owns hotels in Negril and Ocho Rios, where neighbouring properties have complained that their operations are dragging down rates that benefit the town’s economy and hotel employees who are seeing falling gratuities.

The 701-room RIU Montego Bay Hotel now under construction has attracted additional claims that it is building dangerously close to the highwater mark, with dire consequences for beach erosion nearby.

But it is the building of a fourth floor without approval of the relevant bodies that has raised the greatest concern.

Sinclair said RIU would have to account for their breaches of the building permit and the appearance of the latest plan.

“They will have to account to me for that plan which was sent to the superintendent of roads and works,” said Sinclair, an attorney and the son of former Montego Bay mayor, Charles Sinclair Sr.

“We welcome investors and want to see them do well. But they have to comply with our laws which are there for very good reasons,” he insisted.

Earlier in the week, Sinclair also rapped RIU for other breaches, including construction activities outside of the stipulated 6:00 am to 8:00 pm hours during weekdays and Saturdays, as well as on Sundays and public holidays when no work is permitted, because of noise nuisance to hotel guests nearby.

The building permit breaches have also attracted the attention of the umbrella Jamaica Environmental Advocacy Network (JEAN) which called on the Parish Council and NEPA to “insist that the hotel company demolish the fourth floor”.

“JEAN hopes that the Government of Jamaica will take this opportunity to demonstrate its stated commitment to enforce environmental and planning laws… While JEAN supports the initiative taken by the St James Parish Council to investigate the breach and consider enforcement action, we question whether the hotel, now nearing completion, was being adequately monitored by the relevant authorities.

“The fact that an extra storey escaped the notice of both NEPA and the Parish Council illustrates the repeated concerns raised by civil society groups about the qualifications, resources and powers of monitoring personnel to deal with serial breaches by many development projects in Jamaica,” JEAN’s Danielle Andrade complained in a press statement.

NEPA’s Dr Leary Myers earlier in the week confirmed that the agency had not received any requests from RIU for variation of the original plan to build three floors.

Asked for its comment, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it would support the Montego Bay mayor if he and his council decided to close down the hotel, once it was clear that there was a breach of the building permit.

“We approved a maximum height of 14.89 metres above ground level and 16.89 metres above sea level,” said Oscar Darby, deputy director of the CAA. Anything outside of that would be a breach.”

Attempts to contact the consulting architects for RIU proved futile. The approved building permit was signed by Isiaa Madden-Brownie on behalf of RIU Jamaicotel Limited/Deton Enterprises Limited on June 29, 2007.