Mayor of Hamilton Sutherland Madeiros has revealed that auditors are scrutinising expense claims for Corporation members due to concerns raised by the finance committee.

The Mayor told The Royal Gazette that accountancy firm KPMG, which began auditing the publicly-funded Corporation on April 23, had been authorised to investigate the concerns about claims for reimbursement being submitted by elected members.

Mr. Madeiros described the concerns as "unsubstantiated" and said he did not expect anything untoward to be uncovered. He would not go into detail about the nature of the concerns.

He said: "We have authorised them [KPMG] additional expenditure to make sure that any concern brought up is going to be thoroughly looked at. They are just looking at any expenditure claim."

Mr. Madeiros admitted he was unsure who raised the issue but said it came from the finance committee, which is chaired by Deputy Mayor Courtland Boyle and has aldermen Bill Black and David Dunkley as its members.

None of the three committee members could be contacted for comment yesterday.

Mr. Madeiros said it was falsely reported on ZBM television news earlier this week that KPMG had withdrawn from the audit.

He said the firm — which has this year replaced PricewaterhouseCoopers as the municipality's auditor — withdrew its accountants temporarily while they were waiting for additional data to become available.

The Mayor said they were now back at the Corporation and expected to complete the audit by the end of this month.

KPMG partner Craig Bridgewater said: "We don't usually comment on our client engagements."

The concerns being investigated by KPMG continue a tumultuous year for the Corporation, which has been plagued by internal rows between members.

An investigation was launched into the eligibility of Mr. Dunkley and common councillor Graeme Outerbridge to serve as members after a complaint by Mr. Black.

Mr. Outerbridge resigned his seat last week with the intention of re-registering on the voters' register with different details and standing again.

A source told this newspaper that Mr. Dunkley had been advised in a letter from Corporation Secretary Kelly Miller that he was ineligible to serve as a member and "will now have to decide whether he wishes to appeal the decision".

The source added: "If not, he too will have to step down because he cannot sit on the Corporation unless he was qualified to be on the voters' registers when elected to office."

Mr. Madeiros told us: "David Dunkley has not resigned."

He added that Ms Miller would have to comment on whether a letter had been sent to the alderman.

A Corporation spokeswoman promised that the outcome of the investigation into the two members would be made public by June 23.