Alberta Motor Vehicle Industry Council investigating potential misuse of confidential databases

The province's auto-industry watchdog is investigating whether one of its former employees improperly accessed its confidential databases to conduct side work for the Alberta Progressive Conservative party.

Gordon Bull resigned as a lead investigator for the Alberta Motor Vehicle Industry Council (AMVIC) on March 24 after CBC News revealed he was also vetting candidates for the Tories.

On Tuesday, council spokeswoman Laura Lowe confirmed the council is "specifically reviewing" Bull's use of two confidential databases: Motor Vehicle Systems and the Justice Online Information Network.

"If AMVIC has any reason to suspect any individual at AMVIC breached personal information we would immediately contact (freedom of information and privacy) services as we are required through our delegation agreement with Service Alberta and there would be an investigation," Lowe said in an emailed statement.

The AMVIC internal investigation follows repeated queries from CBC News about whether the council had checked to see if Bull, as part of his work for the Tories, may have accessed one of a dozen databases containing confidential information about Albertans.

In a previous response to a CBC News query, another AMVIC spokeswoman cited only one of the dozen databases to which Bull had access, saying she was confident there had been no improper use of the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC), the main database used by law enforcement across Canada.

CBC News also asked if the council had checked to see if Bull had done work for the Tories during his AMVIC work hours.

"Although no organization can fully protect itself from employees doing other activities during their work hours, productivity is the best measure to know whether or not an employee is performing and therefore we look at quality and quantity of work," Lowe wrote.

Lowe did not directly answer the question, saying only that "when AMVIC became aware of a potential conflict of interest (with Bull also working for the Tory party) there were no indications that the individual in question was inappropriately using work time or resources while employed by AMVIC."

It is still not known if Bull worked for the Tories while AMVIC was paying him. Bull has not responded to emailed requests for comment from CBC News since his resignation March 24.

Controversial investigation

In addition to vetting Tory nomination candidates, Bull also conducted the controversial investigation into an allegation of bribery against Edmonton-Ellerslie MLA Naresh Bhardwaj.

Bull's investigation effectively cleared Bhardwaj, who has repeatedly denied the allegation. Bhardwaj is now suing the man who publicly made that allegation first reported by Metro newspapers.

Despite this, the Edmonton Police Service confirmed to CBC News on April 2 it is conducting a criminal investigation into the bribery allegations. New Democrat MLA Brian Mason formally requested the investigation.

The Tories have appointed a new candidate in Edmonton-Ellerslie, saying Bhardwaj cannot run for the party until the matter is resolved.

Bull, a former Calgary police officer, also conducted background checks on two PC party candidates - Tom Choucair in Edmonton-Meadowlark and Jamie Lall in Chestermere-Rocky View. Both men were disqualified on the eve of their nomination elections.

Choucair and Lall told CBC News they were pressured to drop out of their nomination races in favour of other candidates and were disqualified after refusing to do so. Both also say they were not told why they were disallowed.

Lall is now running as an independent in Chestermere against Wildrose floor-crosser Bruce McAllister.