I KNEW NOTHING CLAIMS FIRST MINISTER
Amid the ferry fiasco, Nicola Sturgeon attempts to distance herself from responsibility
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TWO FERRIES were to be built to service Scotland’s island communities, replacing their ageing precursors. A process involving drawing up mandatory requirements for contract that any potential bidder must comply with in order to land the contract.
You assess the bids, asking yourself obvious questions such as ‘Does this bid meet the mandatory requirements for contract?’. Or maybe, ‘Which bid is best value for money for taxpayers?’. And surely, ‘Can this firm marshal the necessary expertise, experience and resources to bring to bear in order to meet the agreed deadline?’
What was supposed to cost £97m at fixed price, to deliver two new ferries by May & July 2018 has become a national embarrassment. And an extremely expensive one for taxpayers.
Sadly, in the case of vessels 801 and 802 the entire procurement process was botched. Incompetence, bad decision making and a fundamental lack of talent by the Scottish Government has conspired to leave taxpayers with escalating bills, running into the hundreds of millions. And still no ferries to show for it.
That £97m has now morphed into £240m, 2.5 times the original budget, and after six years they are still fraught with delays, problems and slipping timescales. The ships themselves are nearly four years late to when they were supposed to enter service.
So who is responsible for this mess? People would like to know, and thus Scotland’s long suffering and highly capable Auditor General duly undertook the task of writing a report. We now have that Audit Scotland report, and scathing is the descriptive best applied to it.
Audit Scotland found that the Scottish Government ignored warnings about financial risks, lacks proper records concerning key decisions being taken and why ministers were so relaxed about financial risks.
An example of incompetence and dodgy decision making relates to how and why Ferguson Marine Engineering limited (FMEL) were named preferred bidder by Scottish Government ministers. FMEL secured, as preferred bidder the contract (at fixed price), to design and build two ferries. But by September 2015 it had already surely become clear to Scottish Government ministers that there were serious problems with FMEL. As Audit Scotland reports,
“FMEL confirmed that it was unable to provide Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) with a full refund guarantee, which was one of the mandatory requirements of the contract”1
So Scottish Government ministers (which includes, surely, our First Minister Nicola Sturgeon) knew from September 2015 that FMEL - their preferred bidder - was unable to meet the mandatory requirement of contract; namely a full taxpayer refund guarantee.
Why did the Scottish Government persist then with FMEL? Sure, a partial refund guarantee was negotiated later, but that still is not meeting the mandatory requirements which called for a full not partial guarantee.
Two thing we do know is that the Scottish Government chose to ignore financial risks as early as 2015. Also, we know that FMEL was owned by pro-independence tycoon Jim McColl (his company Clyde Blowers Capital bought it in September 2014 after the yard had slipped into administration).
Why did the Scottish Government ignore financial risks in 2015? Was it due to incompetence? Or did they not wish to make a pro-independence rich man unhappy with the SNP? I for one would like to get an answer. And apparently so would Jim McColl, who now claims he was a “pawn” in the entire fiasco2.
But the strange story doesn’t end here. According to Audit Scotland although the partial refund guarantee had been negotiated by Caledonian Maritime Assets limited (CMAL - a wholly owned public corporation, Scottish Government the only shareholders), nevertheless CMAL recommended abandoning FMEL.
“Although CMAL subsequently negotiated a partial refund guarantee with FMEL, it remained concerned about the significant financial and procurement risks this created. CMAL had the option to reject FMEL’s bid at this point and informed Transport Scotland that its preference was to re-start the procurement process. Transport Scotland alerted Scottish ministers to CMAL’s concerns and the risks of awarding the contract to FMEL.”3
So what happened next? Well, that is the million dollar question. Audit Scotland reports 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”4
Guess that means it’s time for a fully independent judicial inquiry with the powers to compel witnesses to testify under oath. Maybe then we can discover why SNP ministers decided to go against CMAL recommendations.
This lack of a proper record by the Scottish Government in of itself should be a resignation matter for somebody. How on earth is it possible that a multi-million dollar procurement process has no robust record of decision making? Someone needs to resign for this alone.
But here we are left with some further questions needing answering,
Given Ferguson was a bid which did not provide a full refund guarantee for taxpayers, why was it rated highest by evaluators? Why did ministers insist on pressing ahead with Ferguson when they were advised by CMAL recommendation to take it back out to procurement? Which minister(s) took the decision to tear up the mandatory requirements and dismiss CMAL recommendations? And who did those ministers responsible consult before making their decision?
These are serious issues. We are going to get answers to them, regardless of how hard-ball the SNP led Scottish Government wishes to play things. The questions raised are too weighty to be ignored, the scale of the incompetence too grotesque for the usual SNP obfuscation.
FIRST MINISTER Nicola Sturgeon however has become strangely quiet when faced with any of these questions. Instead we have enjoyed radio silence from the head of the Scottish Government.
But this reluctance to associate herself with the ferries was not always the case however. Back in 2017, she personally oversaw the launch of Glen Sannox ferry.
Never you mind that it was still incomplete, with black painted squares mimicking windows5. All that mattered was the First Minister got to launch a ferry and the true believers duly waved their little saltires for the cameras. Pay no mind that the Glen Sannox is still languishing in dock, unused nearly five years after Nicola Sturgeon ‘launched’ it6.
But now it seems our First Minister knew nothing about anything involving ferries, contracts or procurement at all. She knew nothing, merely a smiling face to be told where to stand and smile as incomplete ferries are ‘launched’ from shipyards. Sort of like the Queen only not. Apparently the failings all belong to disgraced former SNP Finance Secretary Derek Mackay (forced to resign after harassing a schoolboy via social media, another thing the First Minister knew nothing about)
Apparently the decision to ignore CMAL recommendation to return the ferry contracts back out to procurement was all Derek Mackay. He also decided to tear up the mandatory requirement for bids to offer a taxpayer refund guarantee. That was all Derek, not Nicola Sturgeon. We are expected to believe these major decisions had little or no input from the First Minister. She knew nothing, just oversaw the pantomime ‘launch’ of an incomplete ferry that one time; and felt disinclined to bother asking any questions.
I struggle to imagine this being credible. Our current First Minister does not seem the type to grant her ministers significant amounts of autonomy and freedom of action. If anything, she strikes me as preferring something akin to a Presidential as opposed to cabinet style approach to government.
It is simply not credible to claim or imply that Nicola Sturgeon knew nothing about any of the issues explored above. It shatters credulity that this is all wee Derek’s fault, and it never ever went higher up the food chain.
So what are we left with? A sorry story of ministerial incompetence, of huge costs to taxpayers. Also questions now raised about procurement failures, ministerial judgement and possible conflicts of interest.
As the late Tory peer Lord Peter Fraser said of the inquiry into the Holyrood parliament building fiasco: “The ancient walls of the Canongate have echoed to the cry of “It wis’nae me””. Nicola Sturgeon has already begun her tribute act, with her variation of the original; ‘it wis’nae me’ is now apparently ‘I knew nothing’.
Or perhaps that should really be ‘I can’t recall’, eh First Minister?
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
Williams, Martin (2021, September 5), ‘Jim McColl: 'I was Scottish Government pawn in Ferguson Marine ferry fiasco', The Herald, https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/19559681.jim-mccoll-i-scottish-government-pawn-ferguson-marine-ferry-fiasco/
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
Ibid
McCall, Chris (2021, September 23), ‘Nicola Sturgeon mocked for launching ship 'with painted on windows' in row over CalMac ferries’, Daily Record, https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/nicola-sturgeon-mocked-launching-ship-25053908
Williams, Martin (2022, January 23), ‘How Ferguson Marine ferry fiasco vessel Glen Sannox was involved in a Storm Malik river drama’, The Herald, https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/homenews/19885409.ferguson-marine-ferry-fiasco-vessel-glen-sannox-involved-storm-malik-river-drama/
Thankyou for this, Dean. I always wondered what the "ferry fiasco" was all about - now I know! You write very concisely, clear and to the point. I hope the media will keep on their backs about this - somebody's head must roll - preferably Sturgeon's! Of COURSE she knew all about what was happening - I would like to be able to call her a liar to her face! WHY is everyone so polite?!