The First Minister told MSPs there was nothing inappropriate about her government’s decision to award a £97m contract to build two ferries in 2015 to Jim McColl, a financier who had advised Scottish economy ministers and was political ally of her predecessor, Alex Salmond. . That contract, which is under investigation by Holyrood’s public audit committee and the auditor-general of Scotland, has since become a major scandal that has raised questions about the financial capacity and judgment of the Scottish government. The ferries are at least five years behind schedule and will cost at least £240m to complete, leaving Hebridean islanders facing repeated delays, cancellations and breakdowns with their state-run ferry services, run by CalMac. They are expected to enter service next year. In 2019, the Sturgeon government was forced to nationalize the Ferguson Marine yard (FMEL) near Glasgow Port, after repeated disputes and contract problems, which had led to a £45m government bailout. Sharon Dowey, a Conservative MSP on the scrutiny committee, questioned Sturgeon over why McColl, who had no previous experience of managing a shipyard, had been given the contract ahead of nine other bidders. “Was it jobs for the boys?” asked. The First Minister replied: “I completely and utterly disagree [that suggestion]. If you’re saying that there was something unusual about this procurement process to somehow improperly direct this contract to FMEL, absolutely, emphatically, no.” He said there was a strong public and strategic case for ensuring Ferguson was saved and he completed the contract as it was the last commercial shipyard on the lower Clyde and thousands of jobs were at stake. Sturgeon confirmed, however, that Auditor-General Stephen Boyd and Transport Scotland officials are investigating allegations made in a BBC Scotland documentary last month that Ferguson was secretly given preferential treatment in the tendering process. The Disclosure documentary claimed that Ferguson was leaked the full contract specification for the vessels drawn up by CMAL, the state-owned shipping company responsible for the contract. The BBC claimed that Ferguson’s copied this specification almost entirely, completely revised its offer and reduced its price, midway through the bidding process. Ferguson’s was also given the contract without the normal bank guarantees in case it could not complete the ships – a “red flag” issue CMAL raised with ministers when deciding whether to award the contract to Ferguson. CMAL executives told Derek Mackay, the then transport minister, that they would prefer to scrap that bidding process and start again because they were not convinced Ferguson’s bid was strong enough. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. But by then, Sturgeon had already taken part in a widely publicized event at the shipyard to celebrate being selected as the preferred bidder for the contract. Dowey suggested that this made it harder to get out of it. Sturgeon said that was irrelevant. Ministers approved the deal in October 2015 because CMAL had put in place “mitigations” to manage any financial risks. She said that if she had been presented with the same information then, she would have approved the deal. But with the benefit of hindsight, ministers now agreed that the contract had been mishandled. Transport Scotland, CMAL and the Government had significantly strengthened their procurement processes and secured the involvement of external experts. Sturgeon had begun her evidence by acknowledging that delays and disputes with ferries were a “very significant” concern. “I am very aware that the delay has a very significant impact on island communities – this is a matter of great regret,” he said.
