Alex Salmond has insisted he had no knowledge of any preferential treatment given to Ferguson’s before the shipyard won the ill-fated £97 million contract to build two ferries.
The former first minister announced the sale of the troubled yard to then SNP-supporting tycoon Jim McColl nine days before the independence referendum in 2014.
However, he left office after Scots rejected independence and says senior ministers would have been involved in key decisions about the yard, including the awarding of contracts and its eventual purchase by the Scottish Government.
The unfinished Glen Sannox and as-yet-unnamed Hull 802 are years behind schedule with final costs expected to top £300m, three times the original budget.
The procurement process began in July 2014 and a BBC Scotland investigation last week revealed a document detailing technical requirments for the vessel by CMAL – Caledonian Maritime Assets, the government’s ferry procurement organisation – was given to Ferguson’s – but not rivals – during the tendering process with huge swathes of it cut and paste into its bid.
Opposition parties have called for the police to investigate. CMAL deny supplying the document to the yard and ministers say there is no evidence of criminality but have asked Audit Scotland to investigate.
Salmond said: “This is after my time in office. I have no knowledge of that. I left in November 2014 and at that point Ferguson’s was happily saved from closure by Jim McColl and things looked fair for a highly successful partnership. If you put together what was admittedly a fairly run-down yard with a plan for investment and Scotland’s leading engineer and industrialist then you should have a match made in heaven.
“The other potential offers for the yard had no intentions of running it as a shipyard. They were going to turn it into housing. In terms of sustaining the employment at the yard, Jim was the only show in town.”
The Ferguson shipyard had fallen into administration in August 2014 and was bought shortly before the independence referendum by billionaire McColl, who was then a member of the first minister’s council of economic advisers. The deal was announced on the front page of the Daily Record on September 5, 2014, when Salmond was guest-editing the newspaper.
Ferguson’s was announced as preferred bidder to build the ferries in August 2015 and the then-transport minister Derek Mackay announced it had won the contract in a speech to an SNP conference that year, but the yard went bust amid a dispute with the government over the construction and was nationalised in August 2019.
When asked who was to blame for the failure to deliver the ferries on time and on budget, Salmond said: “I have no doubt the key decisions on Ferguson’s were done collectively by the government.
“It wouldn’t come to a cabinet vote but the idea that a junior transport minister is taking these decisions without consulting the finance minister and the first minister strikes me as not credible. It is certainly not all the fault of Derek Mackay. The award of the two ferry contracts wasn’t until October 2015 – and as far as I’m concerned, I left them with a saved shipyard which had excellent potential.”
Concerns over possible preferential treatment of awarding of ferry contract to Ferguson Marine
The two ferries were intended to bolster an increasingly dilapidated and ageing fleet as islanders despaired of service failures and breakdowns.
Figures released yesterday showed that between 2018 and 2022, there were only 291 days –equivalent to one in six days – on which the CalMac ferry network “performed to schedule”.
The data, released by the Lib Dems, showed that in 2022 so far, there have been just 16 days when ferry timetables operated as scheduled. Of all cancelled sailings, 15% have been as a result of technical faults.
CMAL said: “The contract for the design and build of the dual fuel vessels was a competitive tender process, open to any shipbuilder.”
It said claims the design of the ferries was changed after production began causing delays and overspend have been repeatedly denied and blamed the shipyard for failing to deliver the contract as promised.
Jim McColl told the BBC he was not given any “sweeteners” to buy the stricken yard.
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