A report submitted to the council by Ms Harrington on October’s trip to a social enterprise world forum in South Korea was copied and pasted from several online sources.

Ms Harrington has not responded to questions from The Border Mail about whether she has plagiarised other reports submitted to the council and whether she plans to repay the money.

Cr Mahood has not spoken about the matter at all, and refused to comment when approached by a reporter on Thursday.

She did not return calls again yesterday.

Questions sent to the council again went unanswered yesterday.

Mr Deegan said the public had a right to know what had occurred during the $13,600 trip, which included business class flights and $1500 allocated for food, and said ratepayers at least deserved an original report.

“Cr Mahood has got no right not to comment,” he said.

“We’re entitled to know what she did over there.

“We paid for her to go over there.

“She went over using our money and it’s supposed to be for our benefit.

“We’re entitled to know what she did.

“By her not commenting, it only makes people think that she’s covering up on something.”

Mr Deegan said there were other questions that needed to be answered.

“I’d like to know what they achieved,” he said.

“I don’t know if they achieved anything.

“I’d like to see a report from Ms Harrington, in her own words and I think Cr Mahood should also be putting a report into her own words.”

Border Mail readers expressed similar concerns on the newspaper’s website yesterday, with some describing the trip as a “junket” and a “holiday”.

Ms Harrington issued a statement last week explaining her actions as “an oversight”.

Mayor Rodney Wangman also issued a statement last week stating “the chief executive has apologised and the council has accepted her apology”.