Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Former Ferguson Marine boss attacks Scottish Government over ferries fiasco

Jim McColl
Jim McColl

The former boss of Ferguson Marine shipyard, Jim McColl, slammed the Scottish Government in a blame game over the delivery of two new long-delayed ferries.

Tycoon Mr McColl sent his detailed view of the controversy to MSPs saying claims made by the government could not be “further from the truth”.

Public spending watchdog Audit Scotland had recently described how two new ferries at the shipyard in Port Glasgow were fraught with delays and overspends.

Scotland’s Auditor General Stephen Boyle has since told a Holyrood committee he was frustrated when writing this report because he was not able to review all the documents relating to the awarded of the ferry contract to Ferguson Marine.

Now Mr McColl says the Audit Scotland report contains inaccuracies and is a “gross misrepresentation” of what actually happened.

‘Nothing could be further from the truth’

Since the shipyard was awarded the contract to build the two new ferries in 2017, the estimated delivery has been pushed back by five years and costs have increased from £97 million to at least £250m.

The yard also had to be saved from administration by the Scottish Government.

One of the ships being built at Ferguson Marine shipyard in Port Glasgow

However, in correspondence sent to parliament, Mr McColl said the shipyard alerted the government to the seriousness of the situation and raised “red flags” with the first minister as far back as 2017.

He said: “[Audit Scotland] appears to have accepted without question the Scottish Government’s false narrative that this is all down to the inadequacy of Ferguson Marine.

“Nothing could be further from the truth.”

He added: “All through the report there are statements about Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd [CMAL] and the Scottish Government which are presented as if they are factually accurate which they are not.”

Mr McColl also said some parts of the report are “heavily biased” towards CMAL, Transport Scotland and the Scottish Government.

Auditor General ‘frustrated’

Scotland’s Auditor General Stephen Boyle also voiced his “frustration” at the lack of records and documents when compiling this report.

Stephen Boyle, auditor general for Scotland

He told MSPs: “There’s clearly a frustration from us that we weren’t able to review what we would consider to be all the relevant evidence.

“Our judgement is not that evidence has been withheld from us during the course of our audit work, but rather that an important piece of documentary evidence wasn’t prepared to arrive at the judgement that ministers arrive at – to accept the scale of risk so unusual in the scale of this contract and contrary to the advice of the public body [CMAL] which oversees the contract.”

He is due to speak to MSPs again on this next week.

Calls for a public inquiry

Following the auditor general and Mr McColl’s comments, the Scottish Conservatives ramped up their calls for a public inquiry.

Graham Simpson MSP, transport spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives, said: “At best the SNP government is guilty of shocking negligence – and at worse, they have broken the law to try and cover up dodgy dealings.

“The SNP government must now submit to a public inquiry to answer to the Scottish public, and get to the bottom of this fiasco once and for all.”

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar also highlighted the ferry fiasco at First Minister’s Questions, saying it is just one of many examples of the SNP “wasting” public money.

In response to Mr Sarwar’s criticism, Ms Sturgeon said the detail was “ridiculous” and said it was an “utter mischaracterisation” to say the SNP was wasting public funds.