Swinney ‘satisfied’ with his decisions as project descended into chaos
JOHN Swinney yesterday told the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry he was ‘satisfied’ with ‘strategic decisions’ he made regarding the project.
The Deputy First Minister was finance secretary between 2007 to 2014 as the eventual cost of the controversial scheme grew to £1billion.
During those years the project was in crisis, with delays, disputes and alleged incompetence among senior staff.
Some £500million of the cost of the scheme came from government agency Transport Scotland.
But despite the project turning into a fiasco, Mr Swinney said he was largely satisfied with his performance.
Senior inquiry counsel Jonathan Lake, QC, asked him: ‘If you could do this all again and go back to 2007, what would you do differently in relation to the tram project? What would you have done differently if you could do it all over again?’
Mr Swinney replied: ‘I’m satisfied the actions I took were appropriate for the office I held.’
Mr Swinney said there were ‘minor transactional points we might have undertaken differently but on the strategic decisions that I took, I’m satisfied with the decisions that I took’. Asked for examples of ‘minor transactional points’ he said: ‘I would be speculating about what they might be.’
Much of Mr Swinney’s evidence centred on how he was keen for City of Edinburgh Council to be accountable for the scheme despite the fact the majority of the funding came from the Scottish Government.
He said: ‘I wanted to make sure there was no possibility that Transport Scotland would get into a position of where there would be any uncertainty about where operational responsibility for the project lay. This was a City of Edinburgh Council project and I wanted to make it absolutely clear that was the case.’
Despite distancing itself from control of the project, Transport Scotland eventually had to be called in to manage it after the council-owned firm running it was disbanded.