FERRY FIASCO: GAGGING THE EVIDENCE
The SNP government is silencing ferry bosses with Non-Disclosure Agreements
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WHEN the Auditor General attempted to ascertain why the Scottish Government decided to proceed with a ferry procurement contract which lacked basic taxpayer protections, he reported insufficient evidence. But we now know that this is potentially due to evidence being deliberately withheld from him and his investigation.
We now know that others who could be in a position to provide answers to the Auditor General have been prevented from doing so by the Scottish Government. It has come to light that the former bosses of the Ferguson shipyard; prior to nationalisation by the SNP; have been gagged.
Scottish Daily Mail Politics Editor Michael Blackley reports that
“former bosses at Ferguson shipyard were prevented from taking part in a spending watchdog’s investigation into the ferry fiasco”1
Jim McColl (former owner of Ferguson shipyard) has stated that after the SNP government nationalised the yard the senior management team were “dismissed and forced to sign gagging orders”.2
According to the Michael Blackley the Scottish Government (SG) initially attempted to deny any Non Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) even existed,
“When I did the original story on four former bosses being asked to sign gagging orders when they left the Ferguson shipyard the SG actually spent a lot of time denying there were any non-disclosure agreements, so at least they are actually acknowledging that now.”3
So, we now know that gagging orders were imposed on the former management team at the port Glasgow yard, and the SNP government has used these NDAs to prevent them from speaking with the Auditor General.
Furthermore, this all puts SNP Finance Secretary Kate Forbes in the spotlight, since she accused Jim McColl of having a “clear interest in shifting the blame”4 onto the Scottish Government. However it turns out that the SNP government has imposed gagging orders to prevent McColl’s top team from giving evidence to the Auditor General. That sounds less like McColl “shifting blame”, and more like an SNP government scrambling to pass the buck. First it was Derek MacKay, now it is Jim McColl. But the former yes-supporting business Tycoon has now publicly accused Ms Forbes of defamation, saying
“They are good at saying things in Parliament, aren't they, because they are protected from defamation”5
It is worth noting that Kate Forbes has declined to repeat her remarks outside of the Holyrood parliamentary chamber, where she is protected from defamation lawsuits.
And this is all quite important, because Jim McColl insists that the disruption caused by changing ferry designs by Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) and the SNP dismissal of Ferguson leadership after nationalisation of the Ferguson yard are all key reasons why delays occurred. In which case the Scottish Government signed a ferry procurement contract without a taxpayer refund guarantee and without having agreed and settled on a ferry design.
Mr McColl has said
“that is what caused all of the disruption early on (after nationalisation) where for about six months they did not have project management meetings because they didn’t know what they were supposed to do…It is an absolute lie by the Government that it was FMEL’s fault”6
That is rampant incompetence, but less so for Ferguson and the shipyard, more-so for the SNP government. But is this merely a story about incompetence on the part of the Scottish Government any longer?
In my last piece called ‘Civil Service Paper Trails’, I explored which senior civil servants would have been in the loop concerning the Ferguson ferry fiasco. This was motivated in part due to the Auditor General reporting that “there is insufficient documentary evidence to explain why Scottish ministers accepted the risks and were content to approve the contract award in October 2015”7
After all, it stretches credulity that there would be no paper trail, no email chain, nothing written down inside the civil service bureaucracy which can establish why a ferry contract was signed without the proper safeguards for taxpayers. The notion that civil service bureaucrats such as the former Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans or the former Director General of Finance Alyson Stafford cannot provide illumination is nothing short of hair-raising; for all that that implies for the good governance of Scotland.
But now we know that the SNP government took the extraordinary steps to impose NDAs on the former bosses of Ferguson, actively pretend they didn’t and now continue to use said NDAs to block them from giving evidence to Scotland’s Auditor General. Given all of this, perhaps it is understandable why senior civil servants have failed to step up and adequately address pertinent questions. It does not seem that their SNP political masters inside the Scottish Government would look too favourably on anyone ‘breaking ranks’.
But with revelations of former yard bosses being gagged, senior civil servants apparently never having written anything down, and an Auditor General being prevented from obtaining evidence - this all smells like corruption. Not simply incompetence, but something far more sinister.
Taxpayers money was misused due to incompetence, and then the Scottish Government went to extraordinary lengths to hide their failures from the public. It reeks of political corruption. The utilisation of money, influence and power to engage in political self-protection.
It is always the cover-up that lands you in trouble.
Blackley, Michael (2022), ‘Bosses gagged over watchdog probe’, Scottish Daily Mail, click here for link
Blackley, Michael (2022, March 31), ‘Tycoon hits back in war of words over SNP’s ferry fiasco’, Scottish Daily Mail, https://www.pressreader.com/uk/scottish-daily-mail/20220331/281560884305692
Blackley, Michael (2022, March 2), Scottish Daily Mail Politics Editor tweets, click here for link
‘Williams, Martin, (2022, March 30), ‘Tycoon Jim McColl accuses Kate Forbes of defamation over 'shifting blame' ferry fiasco claim’, Herald, https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/homenews/20029829.tycoon-jim-mccoll-accuses-kate-forbes-defamation-shifting-blame-ferry-fiasco-claim/
Ibid
Blackley, Michael (2022, March 31), ‘Tycoon hits back in war of words over SNP’s ferry fiasco’, Scottish Daily Mail, https://www.pressreader.com/uk/scottish-daily-mail/20220331/281560884305692
Auditor General, (2022 March), ‘New vessels for the Clyde and Hebrides Arrangements to deliver vessels 801 and 802’, Audit Scotland, pg 3, https://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/uploads/docs/report/2022/nr_220323_vessels.pdf