Turkey ferries contract sparks doubts on community benefits
QUESTIONS have been raised about the legality of awarding key lifeline ferry contracts to Turkey – after ministers failed to detail any Scottish community benefits from sending the work overseas.
The Turkish shipyard Cemre Marin Endustri has been announced as the preferred bidder for the £105 million order against three other yards, which will increase vehicle and freight capacity by nearly 40 per cent.
The move has already been described as an “embarrassment” for the SNP by the Scottish Conservatives.
But there is new concern that neither Scottish Governmentcontrolled Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL), which owns the nation’s ageing ferry fleet, nor the Scottish Government has outlined what the community benefits are from giving the work to Turkey.
Alba Party deputy Kenny Macaskill has said that CMAL, which was responsible for awarding the contract, must now be scrapped.
Ministers have previously been warned that they may have acted unlawfully by failing to give nationalised shipbuilder Ferguson Marine a look-in for a £100m contract to build two new ferries to serve Islay.
The Turkish yard won ahead of four overseas companies to bid for the contract to build the two vessels – and the Inverclyde shipbuilder was excluded.
The ground-breaking Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 when it was brought was seen by many as a welcome move away from contracts awarded only on the basis of the lowest price towards those which offer the best long-term outcomes for Scotland’s communities and the environment.
Public contracts valued at £4m or above have specific requirements in relation to community benefits in the authority area that a contract is issued.
These should include training and recruitment, the availability of sub-contracting opportunities and that it is intended to improve the economic, social or environmental wellbeing of the area.
If no community benefits are sought in a contract, a statement must be published on justifying the decision.
Finance Secretary Kate Forbes stated that in line with the Procurement Reform (Scotand)
Act 2014, bidders for the Islay procurement process were required to detail the community benefits they are able to offer within their response to the invitation to tender.
Submissions from the four yards were being evaluated, including the responses to the community benefits section included within the original contract notice.
Both Transport Scotland and CMAL have so far failed to outline what community benefits there are from the contract award.
Chris Mceleny, an Inverclyde councillor and general secretary of Alex Salmond’s Alba Party, said: “It is a legal requirement to set out what the community benefits are. To award these contracts without any community benefits would be unlawful.”
Ferguson Marine, which runs the last remaining shipyard on the lower Clyde, was nationalised after it financially collapsed in August 2019, amid soaring costs and delays to the construction of two ferries.
It came five years after tycoon Jim Mccoll first rescued the yard when it went bust. The delivery of new island ferries MV Glen Sannox and Hull 802, which were due online in the first half of 2018, was found to be between four and five years late, with costs doubling to more than £200m.
Earlier this year, it emerged that the completion of the long-overdue ferries had been delayed again.
The Islay route is already one of the busiest services for freight on the Clyde and Hebrides network, and CMAL says that the incoming ferries will support the island’s vital economic activity.
CMAL and Transport Scotland were both asked what the community benefits were, but did not respond.
Transport Scotland said: “CMAL is bound by the requirement to openly tender for these works and undertook the procurement in line with all legal requirements, attracting 11 bids from shipyards around the world.