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Merwan Saher discovered Ms. Redford or someone on her staff had used fake names to block book government prop planes, allowing the then-premier to travel only with her entourage.

Mr. Saher also decided Ms. Redford’s habit of taking her daughter on government flights constituted a “personal benefit.” His report added the ex-premier and her chief of staff denied all knowledge of the practice.

What makes these allegations all the more startling was the timing, said Duane Bratt a professor of political science at Mount Royal University, Calgary, who noted the flights seem to have occurred after Ms. Redford’s infamous trip to South Africa in December.

She rang up a $45,000 tab to attend Nelson Mandela’s funeral, even though all flights, transfers and accommodation were to be covered by the federal government.

The trip caused widespread outrage, killed the ratings of her Progressive Conservative Party and ultimately led to a caucus revolt.

In early March, Ms. Redford suspended out-of-province travel on the planes and asked the auditor general to review the government’s transportation policy.

Prof. Bratt said he remains baffled by her decision.

“Why would a person do this? Any person?” he asked. “When she asked the auditor general to review this, she had to know he was going to find something, didn’t she? Or was she just so delusional that she thought, ‘Oh, he’ll never find what we’ve done.’”

In addition to the “ghost flights,” Mr. Saher also ruled against Ms. Redford’s decision to fly her daughter and her nanny to Jasper during the same long weekends much of southern Alberta was inundated with heavy flooding last year.