The construction of two cruise ships at the Ferguson Shipyard in Port Glasgow for Scotland’s island voyages has been delayed for five years and it is estimated that the two ships could now cost a total of 400 400 million. Earlier this week, the prime minister said “the amount of money stops with me”, but moved to blame the fiasco on the embarrassed Derek Mackay, who was transport minister at the time of the signing. But last night it emerged that Mr Mackay was on holiday when the contract was given the green light and that Keith Brown, who is also the SNP deputy leader and justice secretary at Sturgeon’s cabinet, was asked to approve it in August. 2015. at that time he was secretary of the cabinet for infrastructure, investment and cities. An internal document, received by the Scottish Sun and sent to Mr Brown on 20 August 2015, states: for 2 new large vessels for the CHFS network to Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd (FMEL). ” He did not say whether it was approved by Mr Brown, who became finance minister before being fired by the government in 2018, less than three weeks after becoming the party’s deputy leader, to spend three years behind him before his reappointment last year. the cupboard. Earlier this week, Audit Scotland published a scathing report on the supply of the two new boats. The first Glen Sannox ship was due to be delivered this summer, but a further eight-month delay was confirmed on Wednesday. The guard found that the contract was approved without the usual financial safeguards – prompting warnings from CMAL – but was unable to determine why Ferguson’s order was given without such guarantees. Ferguson’s offer was the most expensive of the six yards offered but surpassed them in terms of “quality”. The Audit Scotland report stated that “it was not clear what discussions took place between the Scottish and Scottish Transport Ministers regarding the award of the contract. “There is no evidence that Scottish ministers were willing to accept the risks of being awarded the contract by FMEL, despite CMAL ‘s concerns. “We believe that this important decision should have been recorded correctly.” Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said: “Nicolas Sterzon’s cynical attempt to cling to this disgrace to the disgraced former minister Derek McKay collapsed in less than 48 hours. “The note published by the Scottish Government, which is supposed to show the approval of Derek Mackay requested for the award of the contract to Ferguson Marine, is a red herring. “This was dated October 8, 2015 – but this was already a comprehensive agreement long before that. “We know that Keith Brown was approved on August 20, 2015 – while Derek Mackay was on vacation – and Nicola Sturgeon was in Port Glasgow on August 31 to announce Ferguson Marine as the preferred bidder. “Despite her best efforts to throw Derek Mackay under a bus on FMQ, Nicola Sturgeon can not escape the fact that she, Keith Brown and then-Treasury Secretary John Swinney were central to the disastrous decision to ignore the concerns and the CMAL award. the agreement with Ferguson. “The brutal rotation and diversion of the First Minister only adds to the darkness of all this sad scandal. “Therefore, while Derek Mackay will have to be summoned to the Scottish Parliament to explain his role, it is essential that a full, independent public inquiry be conducted so that we can find out all the facts about this disgraceful catastrophe. “Nicola Sturgeon has serious questions to answer about her involvement and her government’s decisions. If she really accepts the ultimate responsibility, she must be open and honest about every detail of this scandalous waste of public money. “Scottish taxpayers deserve answers, and the Scottish island communities need to know why these lifeboats are still waiting years after they are completed.” On Thursday, Ms Sturgeon was accused by Mr Ross of throwing Mr Mackay “under the bus” for the fiasco. The First Minister insisted that she took full responsibility for the failures, but seemed to suggest that it was the former secretary of her cabinet who approved the agreement against expert advice. In parliament on Wednesday, Finance Minister Kate Forbes said she could not say which minister had decided to cancel the CMAL. But during the first minister’s questions the next day, after Mr Ross asked Ms Sturgeon to say who “gave the green light” for the contract, the SNP leader said: “Who was the Minister of Transport this year? due moment is, of course, an issue. public archive. That was Derek McKay. “But, of course, this is a government and it may be foreign to the Conservatives, I understand, but this is a government that operates with collective responsibility. “And in the end, as with any decision – whether I’m personally involved in it or not, the responsibility rests with me.” Mr Mackay – who was promoted to finance secretary in May 2016 – was forced to resign from his cabinet in 2020 after being arrested for flooding a 16-year-old boy with “predatory” messages. During questions from the First Secretary, Mr. Ross said that Ms. Sturgeon was trying to blame her former colleague. “The First Minister says she takes final responsibility and then throws under the bus a former minister, a disgraced former SNP minister,” he said. He told MSP: “We are lucky in Scotland to have two governments and only one of them is building ships in Scotland that are actually sailing, and that’s because of the history of the first government minister. “Let’s look at it again. Ferguson Marine was the most expensive bidder. However, as the Prime Minister just said, he was selected on the basis of quality. It is selected on the basis of quality when the ships are two and a half times over the budget, hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer money have already been lost. “There is at least a five-year delay. And there are still 175 faults with the ferries that are still being built. “This is one of the worst public spending disasters since decentralization, and who ruined it? Who knows in SNP Secret Scotland why all the details are gone. “Audit Scotland has not been able to reach the bottom in many places. The only pieces of paper we have left for this disastrous decision are the old SNP press releases that claimed to have saved the Scottish shipbuilding industry.” In response, the Prime Minister said that “there was an issue where Audit Scotland referred to the lack of documentation – I think this is an issue that the government needs to look at seriously and willingly.” The prime minister said it was a “deeply sad situation”. Opposition parties called on Mackay and Sturgeon to appear before a Holyrood committee to answer more questions about the “major mismanagement” of the convention. Neil Bibi, the Labor Party spokesman for the transport sector, sent a letter to Richard Leonard convening the audit committee, asking Ms Sterzon and Ms McKay to testify. Mr Leonard said the committee would consider the Audit Scotland report on the subject at its meeting on 21 April. Mr Mackay resigned from the cabinet in February 2020 after the Scottish Sun revealed that he had contacted the 16-year-old boy via social media without knowing his age and then sent him 270 messages in six months. He “unconditionally” apologized to the boy and was made available by the SNP with a partisan investigation launched into his behavior. He left the SNP in March 2021 and the findings of the investigation were never made public. At the time, she was considered a possible successor to Mrs Sturgeon.
