by Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec 05/97) - It's been nearly a year since Edmonton and Yellowknife RCMP began investigating a public complaint laid against the GNWT.

And they are just as tight-lipped about releasing details now as they were six months ago when word got out about the investigation.

"The guys aren't saying much," Sgt. Tom Steggles, an RCMP spokesman in Yellowknife, said last week.

The commercial crime section of the RCMP was called after a complaint was laid last January.

"It's a complaint of possible irregularities in government operations," Steggles said in an earlier interview.

So far, the RCMP haven't released any information about the lengthy investigation, except that Edmonton officers are handling the complaint because they have a member who has worked on similar cases in the past.

"It's going to be quite a while. They've got a few of these things on the go," said Steggles.

"It's a big paper trail."

Commercial crime sections typically investigate white-collar crimes such as fraud.

The focus of rumors about the investigation has shifted from department to department and from minister to minister over the past few months. But so far, there has been no official confirmation of any details.