Following enquiries by The Daily Advertiser, newly-appointed council boss Peter Thompson confirmed the state’s anti-corruption watchdog had attended council premises.

“Council has been requested to make no comment in relation to the visit and any further enquiries should be made directly to the commission,” Mr Thompson said.

When ICAC was asked for clarification, a spokeswoman said: “The commission has no comment”.

Wagga Ratepayers Community Forum chief Lynne Bodell said the situation was very concerning.

“Hopefully council, in the near future, will release more details and keep the community informed,” Dr Bodell said. “I certainly think ratepayers are entitled to have more information released in due course, some sort of statement about what has occurred and what was done to resolve it to basically put it to rest. If they try to sweep it under the mat it will just come back to haunt them.”

Former councillor Julian McLaren said a number of issues had put a cloud over council and he hoped ICAC’s investigation would be resolved quickly.

“I hope ICAC can do its job and remove some of the cloud left over council,” Mr McLaren said. “Hopefully this can shed some light on unanswered questions. If the ICAC is there they should clear it up, fix it up and move forward.”