MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Mayor of Mandeville Donovan Mitchell has criticised the procurement process over the revelation that nearly $360 million was paid over by Tax Administration Jamaica (T
AJ) in a lease for an unoccupied building in Mandeville.

“This is joke business and we are talking about taxpayers’ money,” he said during last Thursday’s meeting of the Manchester Municipal Corporation.

“When I listened to the auditor general’s (AG) report of how much money we have paid in Manchester for a building that we have not yet occupied, if we had done what we should have done, we would probably have gone far ahead,” he said.

Said the mayor: “The truth about it, we are paying the rent in US dollars and I see the tax office in Christiana just start last year and almost finish, so I don’t know what is wrong with the procurement guideline; everybody wants to be the boss and say ‘a me in charge, so you can’t do nothing except me’ while the people of the country are suffering.”

The AGD said the TAJ is yet to occupy the building it leased in Greenvale, Mandeville, despite spending a total of $356.8 million as at August 31, 2023.

“Despite the completion of the proposal for renovation and furnishing in June 2019, and the first lease payment in September 2020, the necessary retrofitting/renovation works had not yet commenced as of August 2023,” said the auditor general’s report.

The Jamaica Observer was told that the leased location in Mandeville is on Old Greenvale road close to Perth Road.

Mitchell said residents are left to suffer with long waiting times and inconveniences at the TAJ’s Mandeville office on South Race Course Road.

“I am sorry for the people out by the tax office at day-time. They are out there for hours. I know a young man who went three days in a row because by the time he reached the door, it was closed,” he said.

His criticism followed the council’s property tax report. For March 2024 the total property tax collection was $86,947,718.35 contributing to the 2023/ 2024 financial year collection of $875,766,717.46.

Philroy Richards, director of finance at the municipality, said the council did not meet its collection target as there was “a shortfall of just over $74 million”.