Jim McColl: Tycoon condemns SNP ferry fiasco contract 'cover-up'

Mr McColl says the failure amounts to a 'cover up' as it shows that his firm was legally entitled to ask for extra costs to complete the ferries before it went into insolvency prior to nationalisation.

The contract, he says, crucially states that it was NOT fixed price as insisted by state-controlled Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) and ministers.

The Scottish Government concluded two months before Ferguson Marine went under that there was no legal basis for CMAL to pay more than what it said was a £97m fixed price.

Mr McColl says if an extra costs claim had not been rejected the ferries would have been built for just £200m rather than the near-£500m he believes it will end up being.

It has emerged that vital pages have been removed from the previously secret contract to build the ferries before they were finally published by the Scottish Government.

They included crucial financial details over the contract, guarantees, payment details, permissible delays and cost liabilities.

Official financial budget statements revealed that the cost to the taxpayer of the Scottish Government's intervention in Ferguson Marine before and after its nationalisation has now soared to more than £450m.

Mr McColl, who wants the full contract released, says it omits 35 pages of terms and that a full disclosure would reveal the 'lie' that no more money could be paid to Mr McColl's firm for the ferries.

Mr McColl said: "They intentionally suppressed the release of crucial pages which reveal that the contract is not a fixed price contract and that there was a prescribed legal way for CMAL to pay more than the original contract price.

"It is appalling it has been withheld and is fundamental to what went wrong.

"The Scottish Government wanted to shut down a knowledgeable investigation into what went wrong."

Richard Leonard, convener of the Scottish Parliament public audit committee, which is investigating the arrangements to deliver the vessels is currently seeking an unedited copy of the contract from the Scottish Government's economy director general Gregor Irwin.

In a letter to Mr Irwin, Mr Leonard says: "The committee believes there is clear merit in publishing this contract information in full and asks the Scottish Government to do so in the interests of transparency and to enable scrutiny. Should this not be possible, the committee requests a detailed explanation of the reasons for this approach."

The Scottish Government had stated that sections of published documents relating to Ferguson Marine were redacted 'due to commercial or legal confidentiality.

But Mr McColl says the 'get-out' clause should not he allowed to stand.

Ferguson Marine's claim for extra costs rose from £17.5m in July, 2017 to £65.8m in December, 2018.

MSPs have been told that the 'value for money' analysis by consultants Teneo that cost the taxpayer £620,000 will not be disclosed because it is feared it will jeopardise the future of nationalised Ferguson Marine.

The review said it would be cheaper to scrap Hull 802 and place a new order elsewhere. But the government said continuing the build of Hull 802 was the fastest way of securing a new ship.

Scottish Conservative shadow transport minister Graham Simpson MSP said: “There has been a woeful lack of transparency from the very beginning of this sorry saga – and we have the bizarre situation where the SNP-Green government are blocking an audit report into why ministers chose to ignore the verdict that it would be cheaper to scrap hull 802 and start from scratch."

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We will consider this request from the Public Audit Committee in due course.”