VANCOUVER (CBC) - NDP health critic Adrian Dix says the public should have been told months ago that the province's criminal justice branch has hired a special prosecutor to investigate a longtime B.C. bureaucrat.

The branch, part of the Attorney General's ministry, appointed Victoria lawyer John Waddell on April 18 as a special prosecutor to assist the RCMP in its investigation of former public servant Ron Danderfer.

But appointment was not made public until Tuesday following inquiries from CBC News.

"The announcement of the special prosecutor was, I guess, waiting for someone to ask the right question to the right official," Dix told CBC News Wednesday.

"I don't think that's the best process. I think in this case the government probably should have let people know what's going on," Dix said.

Stan Lowe, who speaks for the criminal justice branch, said the Crown followed the usual policy of keeping the appointment of the special prosecutor confidential until information about the investigation was "in the public domain."

"It was important that we had to consider the amount of information that was in the public domain, and the information regarding the police investigation was certainly out there," Lowe said.

"The principal subject of the investigation was out there. And when you directly asked the branch with respect to if we have had any involvement with regard to this Danderfer matter, it triggered the response," Lowe told the CBC.

$10,000 cheque investigated

The case came to light in July 2007 when the Ministry of Health confirmed that Danderfer, who was at that time the assistant deputy minister responsible for knowledge management and technology, was the subject of an audit by the Ministry of Finance regarding contracting practices.

One of the issues the auditors wanted to examine was the issuing of a $10,000 cheque by a Ministry of Health consultant to Joan Danderfer, who is Ron Danderfer's wife and was also a senior public servant at the time.

During the audit Ron Danderfer was placed on mandatory leave. He did not have access to his office, records or government computer system.

Then in October, Danderfer retired after a 35-year-career with the B.C. government in which he held a number of senior positions.

In December, the RCMP confirmed a criminal investigation had been launched, but the police asked the government not to release the internal audit.

Dix said he believes the public should be kept better informed about this case because of Danderfer's role in overseeing a project that involves the sharing of electronic medical records.

"All of our electronic health records, some of our most personal information, is involved in these contracts. Hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts have been let," Dix said.

But the government has always insisted Danderfer was not involved in evaluating bids for the electronic medical record contract, and that the bidding process has not been tainted.

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