VICTORIA - A special prosecutor has been appointed to look into allegations of misconduct involving a former senior official with the B.C. Ministry of Health who handled hundreds of millions of dollars in health contracts.

Lawyer John Waddell was appointed in April at the request of RCMP investigating the case, the criminal justice branch of the B.C. Attorney General's ministry said Tuesday.

Stan Lowe, a spokesman for the branch, said the branch decided to publicly confirm the special prosecutor's April appointment Tuesday after a reporter asked about the matter.

"The inquiry was specific enough to warrant a response," Lowe said.

Ron Danderfer was an assistant deputy minister of health who retired under a cloud last year.

Danderfer had been placed on mandatory leave last July after an email surfaced that raised Opposition questions about the health contracts.

"The issues raised in the case are extremely serious for government," NDP health critic Adrian Dix said in an interview.

"I can tell you there are serious issues with respect to these e-health contracts from a public policy and from a health perspective."

The special prosecutor will offer police independent legal advice during their investigation and will assess whether charges are warranted in the case.

The B.C. Liberal government ordered an internal audit last summer after an email was discovered in which Danderfer, the former assistant deputy minister of health, asked his wife about a $10,000 cheque from health contractor Dr. Jonathan Burns.

Danderfer was chairman of the government's e-health initiative, which was planning to modernize the delivery of health care in British Columbia. The initiative also has ties to federal health programs.

Health Minister George Abbott said last year that the audit conducted by the comptroller's office within the Finance Ministry found no evidence of wrongdoing in the Health Ministry's contract bid process.

But Abbott said the RCMP didn't want the audit released. He wouldn't say why.

Abbott did say the audit investigation involving Danderfer broadened, but he wouldn't say what else was being investigated.

Abbott said Tuesday it would be inappropriate to comment any further on the matter now that the special prosecutor has been appointed.

In a statement, he said he was only told Tuesday of the April appointment of the special prosecutor "concerning an investigation into allegations of misconduct involving a long-serving senior civil servant, Ronald Danderfer."

Danderfer and Burns were members of a steering committee overseeing a $108-million contract known as the Physician Information Technology Project, aimed at getting the province's doctors on common software for medical records.

At one point, Burns listed one of the winning companies as one of his partners on his website.

The company, Wolf Medical, denied there had ever been a financial link between the two.

Burns also sat on several high-powered government health committees with Danderfer and helped oversee ministry projects worth at least $300 million.

Only six companies were chosen to be involved in the project.

Burns was not named in the statement from the criminal justice branch Tuesday and has never commented on the allegations surrounding Danderfer.

Abbott has said in the past that a government review found Danderfer was not involved in the selection or evaluation process for the project and that the bid process was not tainted.

Danderfer has also never commented on the controversy.

The New Democrats and some members of the medical community alleged Danderfer had close ties to health contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

But Abbott said internal government reviews have found Danderfer did not and was not able to influence those contracts.

Abbott has confirmed in the past that at least one bidder for a Health Ministry contract complained about the bid selection process for a software contract.