VICTORIA — Senior B.C. government officials are deliberately frustrating public requests for information and wiping away emails with a "triple delete" procedure so no one can follow their tracks, says B.C.'s privacy commissioner.

Elizabeth Denham released a scathing report Thursday that identified abuses and disregard of freedom-of-information legislation that results in keeping sensitive records away from the prying eyes of the public, media and its critics.

"In the course of this investigation, we uncovered negligent searches for records, a failure to keep adequate email records, a failure to document searches, and the wilful destruction of records responsive to an access request," said Denham.

"Taken together, these practices threaten the integrity of access to information in British Columbia."

She highlighted problems reaching as high as Premier Christy Clark's office, involving the premier's deputy chief of staff.

But she mainly zeroed in on George Gretes, a young political aide to Transportation Minister Todd Stone, who deliberately deleted emails related to safety consultations on the Highway of Tears, and then lied at least six times about it under oath to Denham's investigators.

Gretes resigned Thursday, but not before Denham referred his case to the RCMP. Perjury, the act of lying under oath, is a criminal offence. The RCMP said it's reviewing the case.

Denham's report drew attention to the practice of "triple-deleting" emails by government officials, in which a person can permanently scrub a record from a government server by deleting it from their email inbox, trash folder and then from a special "recover deleted items folder" before it's captured by the automatic monthly backup on the provincial system.

Stone admitted to reporters he too triple-deletes certain emails, but downplayed Denham's report as an "interpretation" of the law.

"She certainly has her interpretation of the act, and we certainly respect her views," said Stone.

"We respect the findings that are detailed in her report and respect the recommendations she's made.

"I adhere 100 per cent to the act," he added. "Some emails are deleted, some emails are kept. That is I think how all British Columbians manage their email."

The Denham report validated complaints of whistleblower Tim Duncan, a former staffer in Stone's office, who in May publicly accused Gretes of deleting emails from his computer before they could be captured by a freedom-of-information request made by the Opposition NDP.

Duncan said Thursday he feels vindicated by the report, but warned Gretes is being made a scapegoat for a widespread practice among political staff who wipe clean their email records to prevent them from ever becoming public.

"It's not just young 22-year-old staffers doing this," said Duncan. "It's senior experienced people conducting themselves in this way, clearly against the law."

B.C.'s information law makes it mandatory for government officials to keep records related to decisions, advice and policies on the job. But it also allows them to delete their own "transitory" records, which they define as being on routine or unimportant matters.

But Gretes and others are triple-deleting emails they should be keeping, Denham found.