Ferry scandal: Boss of quango tells of missing documents

A FORMER quango boss has confirmed that SNP ministers did not give him written confirmation of the reasons they ignored his advice and awarded a controversial ferries contract.

Erik Ostergaard, chairman of the Scottish Government’s ferries quango when the contract was awarded to Ferguson Marine in 2015, said he did not receive a written record confirming the reasons behind the award.

It comes after claims the SNP government’s failure to provide documents around the award of the £97million contract to build two CalMac ferries is ‘institutional corruption on a grand scale’.

Spending watchdog Audit

Scotland found ‘insufficient documentary evidence’ to show the reasons for the contract going to Ferguson when the government quango, Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL), advised against it due to no full refund guarantee being in place.

Asked whether he saw a written record explaining the reasons to award the contract, Mr Ostergaard, then-chairman of CMAL and now chairman of CalMac owner David MacBrayne, told the Mail: ‘I don’t recall having seen records explaining the reasons. But as stated in the Audit Scotland report, CMAL was given written confirmation to proceed awarding the contract.’

Pressed to clarify whether the reasons were communicated to him verbally or in writing, Mr Ostergaard referred further inquiries to CMAL’s current chief executive, Kevin Hobbs, and chairman Morag McNeill, who was a board member in 2015.

In a statement, a spokesman for CMAL said: ‘Every document in our possession has already been released as part of the RECC [rural economy and connectivity committee] and Audit Scotland reports.’

Graham Simpson, transport spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives, said: ‘It is totally unacceptable that the then-chairman of CMAL was given no written documentation by the SNP government of why they were giving the contract to Ferguson Marine.

‘CMAL’s advice that awarding the deal to Ferguson was too risky was flatly ignored by ministers. Yet the SNP still didn’t see fit to outline why.

‘This adds to the growing belief the SNP were desperate to cover their tracks.’

Scottish Government documents show Mr Ostergaard raised concerns with John Nicholls, then-director of aviation and maritime at Transport Scotland, about the risks on September 26, 2015.

He said the level of refund guarantees was ‘not sufficient’ and led to an unsecured risk of £60million, which he said was not ‘normal practice’.

The following month, Mr Nicholls told Mr Ostergaard he was content to proceed with the contracts award having ‘noted the risks identified by CMAL’.

A spokesman for Transport Scotland said: ‘The Scottish Government has published relevant and detailed information on its website, which clearly sets out the basis on which key decisions were taken. There was no ministerial direction requested or required.’

‘Desperate to cover tracks’