Now ministers pay £200k for advice on how to run ferry yard
SNP ministers are to draft in private sector experts to help them run a shipyard they nationalised.
Taxpayers will foot a £200,000 bill for advice from consultancy firm PwC about ‘making sound commercial decisions’ at Ferguson shipyard.
Ministers were accused of ‘double standards’ over the move – as they previously rushed to bring the site back into public hands against the advice of their own advisers.
The yard at Port glasgow on the Clyde was taken into public control last year after it entered administration as a contract to build two CalMac ferries spiralled out of control.
Scottish Conservative economy spokesman Maurice golden said: ‘The SNP’s double-standards on the ferries fiasco is there for all to see.
‘It couldn’t wait to nationalise the shipyard where these vital vessels are being built. Yet when things start to go wrong, it turns to the private sector for answers.
‘It’s staggering inconsistency from an SNP government which is failing island communities.’
delays and cost overruns with the £97million contract to build the ferries led to a bitter dispute between the yard owner Ferguson Marine and Caledonian Maritime Assets limited (CMAl), the quango which is responsible for CalMac vessels and harbours
It led to the yard plunging into administration before former Finance Secretary derek Mackay opted to nationalise it despite an offer from former owner Jim McColl to rescue it.
A private report released under Freedom of Information law last year revealed that luke van Beek, appointed by Mr Mackay to report on the state of the ferries project, advised against nationalisation.
The Scottish government yesterday confirmed the new consultancy contract with PwC is worth £200,000 – and said ‘professional advice’ is important to reach ‘sound commercial decisions about the continuing operation of Ferguson Marine’.
Scottish labour transport spokesman Colin Smyth said: ‘The Scottish government’s ferry fiasco continues with the cost to the taxpayer spiralling even further out of control.
‘With the cost of the contract double the original price and the ships still not part of the fleet, serious questions need to be asked about the Scottish government’s woeful handling of this project.
‘We could be building twice as many ferries as we are had this not been badly mismanaged.’
At an explosive Holyrood committee meeting earlier this year, Mr McColl blamed Nicola Sturgeon for failing to halt the project’s spiralling costs by forcing CMAl to enter mediation. He also demanded that a full independent public inquiry be launched so that ministers have to answer questions about the fiasco ‘under oath’.
The Mail also revealed in February that four members of Ferguson Marine’s management team had to sign pay-off agreements which included clauses preventing them from criticising SNP ministers. The yard was initially rescued by Mr McColl in 2014.
A Scottish government spokesman said: ‘This professional advice is important in supporting the Scottish government in making sound commercial decisions about the continuing operation of Ferguson Marine, an industrial business now in public ownership.’
‘Staggering inconsistency’