First Minster under fire over ferries in her final week in office
Nicola Sturgeon has faced criticism over her decision to ‘prematurely’ announce Ferguson Marine as the preferred bidder to build two new ferries.
The outgoing first minister, who today held her final First Minister’s Questions, announced the plan in 2015, but the Public Audit Committee said “considerable negotiations” were still required.
Ferguson Marine has run into numerous issues with development of the Glen Sannox and yet to be named hull 802.
The ferries were due in 2018, but are still unfinished, and the cost has tripled, now sitting at £300 million.
They are set to cover Ardrossan–Brodick and the Uig triangle.
The report
Last week it was revealed that both ferries have been hit by more delays, with Glen Sannox now due in autumn, and hull 802 in autumn 2024.
The first minister was accused of playing a role in these delays, by not allowing negotiations to be fully completed.
The criticism of the first minister was backed by a majority of MSPs on the committee in a 124-page report following months of investigations.
Two SNP members on the committee, Colin Beattie and Willie Coffey, were not in agreement with the conclusions about Sturgeon’s role.
The committee also said there had been delays to information and incomplete and missing answers by ministers and Transport Scotland during its inquiry.
The Scottish government said it was already making changes to fix some of the issues from the report and would respond fully once the findings of the report were fully understood.
Island perspective
The committee also found that island taxpayers had been badly let down and islanders agree with that sentiment.
Islanders are not happy about this
Joe Reade from the Mull and Iona Ferry Committee said:
“It was quite predictable and yeah it just means further delay further trouble for all the islands concerned.
“We’ve got the temporary chartering of MV Pentalina in the meantime which will help Until Glen Sannox arrives, but yeah it’s just more of the same.”
There were claims from Ferguson Marine owner Jim McColl, that she chose his company for political publicity for its 2015 party conference, which the government has denied.
The cross-party committee’s report said: “Given that it was clear that considerable negotiations were still required, we question the first minister’s decision to publicly announce the preferred bidder.
“The committee is not convinced that such a public announcement was necessary or indeed appropriate for this project, especially at that time, given the considerable work and negotiation that was required before CMAL could take a decision to award the formal contract.
“We believe that this almost certainly weakened CMAL’s negotiating position with FMEL, particularly as important details of the contract were still being worked out.”
When the report was mentioned in her final FMQ’s today, the first minister simply replied by listing her long list of successes while in office.
