The Saskatchewan Party is asking why the NDP didn't want to press fraud charges 15 years ago against a former New Democrat caucus employee who confessed to taking about $6,000 she admitted she wasn't entitled to.

The questions asked Thursday by Saskatchewan Party MLA Ken Krawetz, fuelled by a series of leaked documents, concerned the case of Ann Lord, who also went by the name Ann Davey and who, in 1992, was the NDP caucus's director of administration.

After telling the NDP caucus in 1992 she had taken the money, Lord left Saskatchewan.

"What steps have been taken by the NDP to recover the money that Ann Lord misappropriated and took from the taxpayers of this province, and how much has been recovered?" Krawetz asked during question period.

Earlier in the week, Krawetz referred to a Regina Leader-Post newspaper report from Nov. 21, 1992 that said after leaving her job with the NDP caucus, Lord was ordered extradited to the United States, where she faced 85 criminal charges, including fraud, counterfeiting and transporting stolen goods. 

Krawetz also quoted Thursday from an memo, written by former employee Carla Douglas, that he said suggested the NDP caucus office did not want police to pursue the matter of the NDP funds.

"I was told that in respect of the political sensitivity of the issue that as few people as possible should be involved, and that furthermore the office had decided not to press charges," said the July 12, 1994 memo from Douglas, the woman who replaced Lord as caucus director of administration.

More than a dozen Progressive Conservative MLAs were being investigated by the RCMP in the early '90s  for misuse of caucus funds. Ultimately, several PC MLAs, included former deputy premier Eric Bernston, went to jail.
 
NDP MLA Glenn Hagel, who was the caucus chair when Lord was hired, accused the Saskatchewan Party Thursday of trying to deflect attention about the scandals of Grant Devine government on the 25th anniversary of the election of the PCs.

During debate about the case, Hagel confirmed an audit had been done and turned over the police after it was learned Lord had misappropriated funds. He tabled a copy of the audit in the legislature.

Later Thursday, NDP caucus chief of staff Jim Fodey told reporters that after 15 years, there's a lot he doesn't remember about the case, but he does remember the day Lord didn't show up for work.

She had left a letter for him and Hagel confessing to taking the money and begging for forgiveness. Fodey said he immediately reported the matter to Regina police.

After that came an audit, which showed $6,166 was missing — $266 more than Lord had claimed. Fodey said that audit was shown to police, but they didn't pursue charges so the government never reported the loss to the public.

"It was an internal matter at that point because charges were not being filed," he said. "This was a personnel file of an individual who clearly had done something inappropriate."

Although the same newspaper report from 1992 said NDP officials said an audit turned up no evidence of wrongdoing, Fodey suggested Thursday there was a problem with the reporter's "interpretation."

Fodey was also the subject of part of the Carla Douglas memo read in the legislature Thursday.

"Jim … asked why I thought the police had the report," Douglas wrote in the memo. "When I told him that he had told me the police had the report, he rapidly backpedalled and tried to say that I had misunderstood him."

The Saskatchewan Party says there are many contradictions in Fodey's story and it intends to continue pursing the facts.