A REPORT submitted to Monday’s Wodonga Council meeting by chief executive Patience Harrington was almost entirely plagiarised and copied from several websites, including Wikipedia.
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Ms Harrington’s report related to her attendance, and that of Cr Lisa Mahood, at a social enterprise world forum in South Korea in October, which came at a cost of about $13,600 to ratepayers.
But the three-page delegates report tendered to the council on Monday night by Ms Harrington was mostly cut and pasted from other sources.
Just four paragraphs in the report, which lists Ms Harrington as the author, were actually written by the chief executive.
Late yesterday she explained away her actions as “an oversight on my behalf” not to reference “some” of the research that made up her report.
“This will be rectified on the council’s website as we treat very seriously the need to acknowledge the work of others,” she said in a statement, issued more than six hours after The Border Mail put in a request for comment.
Ms Harrington said the purpose of the report was as “a summary explanation of the meaning of social enterprise”, including examples and “widely-used terminology”.
But the agenda item on the Seoul trip on Monday night’s meeting agenda clearly describes the report as a “delegates” report.
And it says the intention of this was in fact “to provide a report of the attendance of Cr Mahood and the chief executive officer” at the forum.
The concluding points in the report in which Ms Harrington outlines “a threefold” approach by Wodonga was lifted almost word-for-word from a Scottish government website.
Another section in the report, which lists social enterprise as being “critical to the economy of Wodonga”, has also been copied from the Scottish site, which lists social enterprise as being critical to the economy and society of the Highlands and Islands.
Three sentences in the council report have been copied from The Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Alliance website, and another section detailing what a social enterprise is has been lifted from Wikipedia.
Another section is quoted word for word from a 2011 report written by former Democrats leader Cheryl Kernot and Joanne McNeill, from the University of Western Sydney.
The key themes from the conference have also been taken directly from the Social Enterprise World Forum website.
While much of the information is copied word for word, some phrases have been copied with minor alterations, including in one instance replacing the phrase “the broader Australian economy” with “the Wodonga economy”.
About 200 words in the council’s report are original, with the rest of the almost 900 words coming from seven websites.
The ratepayer-funded trip to Seoul cost $13,600, including business class flights worth about $8700, $2000 in hotel fees, $1500 for food and $1400 in conference fees.
The Border Mail submitted questions to the office of Local Government Minister Natalie Hutchins yesterday, with a spokesperson responding that “councillors and council staff are responsible to local residents and should hold themselves to the highest standards of professionalism”.
Cr Mark Byatt was the only councillor to vote against the trip when it was approved last June, and Cr Mahood was absent from the meeting.
Mayor Rodney Wangman said at the time the trip was “a response to the changing concerns and issues in our society” and defended the decision to fly Cr Mahood and Ms Harrington in business class.
Ms Harrington said Monday night’s presentation that accompanied her report addressed what she and Cr Mahood experienced.
That included what they intended to do with the information on their return, plus examples of social enterprise from an online video.
“The conference was invaluable in giving us key contacts that can help us promote the opportunities for social enterprise in our city and build on the great work of organisations such as Westmont, UnitingCare and Aware Industries,” she said.
“As indicated on the night, this was the first report and a follow-up session will be provided regarding how we can build our community through social enterprise here in Wodonga.”
