SNP: Ferry deal shipyard bosses WERE handed ‘gagging’ payouts
FERRY contract bosses at a nationalised shipyard were given lucrative gagging orders, the Scottish Government has finally admitted.
Officials have accepted that a Scottish Government body running the Ferguson shipyard did hand out settlement deals to a number of former bosses.
But they refused to say how much the pay-offs cost the public purse.
The Scottish Daily Mail revealed last month that four members of Ferguson Marine’s management team signed pay-off agreements which included clauses preventing them criticising SNP ministers.
Ministers faced new claims of issuing ‘misleading’ statements after the Government initially denied the existence of the deals. The Port Glasgow yard was taken into public control after it entered administration as a contract to build two CalMac ferries spiralled out of control.
It later admitted the existence of the payments but tried to suggest they were signed prior to it taking control.
However, in response to a freedom of information request by the Mail, officials have finally admitted the agreements did exist – and were signed by bosses at Macrocom, a Scottish Government entity set up by ministers to manage the yard when it was in administration.
Asked how many settlement agreements were signed which ‘included a requirement for confidentiality’, the Scottish Government said: ‘Settlement agreements were agreed between Macrocom (now known as Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Ltd and less than five former employees of Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd.’
But the Government refused to provide details of the costs. It said: ‘An exemption on the grounds that the information is the personal information of the former employees applies to the details of the settlement agreements, and the costs associated with them.
‘Confidentiality clauses do not under any circumstances prevent an individual from making a protected disclosure under whistleblowing legislation.’
Dean Lockhart, Scottish Tory transport spokesman said: ‘This looks like a worrying catalogue of misleading responses from the SNP government. It is of real concern that the SNP government has been caught trying to mislead the public.
‘It’s also disappointing that a SNP government body asked staff to sign non-disclosure agreements and they must tell the public why.’
Last month, Jim McColl, the former owner of the site and an economic adviser to Nicola Sturgeon, accused the Scottish Government of ‘lying’ and using its taxpayer-funded PR machine to spin the truth.
When the Mail confirmed its full knowledge about the secrecy deals, the Government acknowledged agreements are in place but claimed it was not involved.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘As we have repeatedly explained, the Scottish Government has not asked any staff to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
‘Prior to the Scottish Government taking control, senior management signed standard confidentiality clauses as part of their conditions of employment with the previous owner.’