Sinn Féin stands accused of 'copping out' of the World Police and Fire Games which will be held in Belfast in 2013.
A City Hall source said while the party was keen to jet off on "foreign junkets" related to the games, it wasn't willing to do "the donkey work" of organising them at home.
The sporting equivalent of the cops' Olympics will bring 15,000 police, prison officers and fire fighters from across the globe to Belfast.
Sinn Féin Sports' Minister Caral Ni Chuilin and two officials are flying to New York where this year's games open on Friday. Their five-day trip will cost £7,500.
Belfast's Sinn Féin Lord Mayor, Niall O'Donghaille and a council official will also visit New York, costing rate-payers £5,200.
Ni Chuilin and O'Donghaille say they're travelling to New York to promote the Belfast games and to discuss the event's format and tourist potential with US organisers.
However, a City Hall source said: "Sinn Féin politicians go to exciting foreign destinations to talk about these games. But the party isn't so keen to put the elbow grease into organising them at home.
"Sinn Féin won't sit on the board set up to administer the games here. As the largest party in Belfast, it was entitled to a seat but rejected it without explanation. So the seat went to the SDLP's Pat McCarthy."
In 2007, Sinn Féin's Fra McCann and two other councillors flew to Melbourne to make the successful bid for Belfast securing the games.
Ulster Unionist councillor Bob Stoker, who was part of the victorious Australian delegation, said: "I'm disappointed Sinn Féin hasn't taken its seat on the board for the Belfast games.
"The event will boost our economy. I'm baffled that Sinn Féin doesn't want a role in influencing the direction of the games and the local venues they're held at."
Sinn Féin strongly denied having an "a la carte" attitude to the games. A party spokesman said Ni Chuilin and O'Donghaille would be carrying out vital duties in New York.
"Our representatives don't go on junkets. It's pathetic that some Belfast councillors can't see past the petty politicking of the council chamber to support the Mayor and Sports' Minister in their work," he said.
