MSPS have rejected calls for assurances that that there would be ministerial resignations if the timetable for the completion of two delayed and over-budget ferries is missed again.
They voted 65 votes to 52 in favour of a Scottish Government amendment rejecting the Scottish Lib Dems' demands which aimed to make the SNP accountable for any future issues.
Scottish Liberal Democrats leader Alex Cole-Hamilton who moved the parliamentary motion said the SNP had to be more accountable over who sanctioned the award of the ferries fiasco contract in the first place in a scandal that he said threatened Nicola Sturgeon's premiership.
But SNP finance minister Ivan McKee batted away claims that there could be a breach of ministerial code of conduct over record keeping failures after Audit Scotland said there was not a proper record over a controversial decision to award the ferry fiasco contract to the Jim McColl-led Ferguson Marine in 2015.
He said that there were already 200 documents in the public domain about the process the Scottish Government went through and that ministers was committed to "open government" and "values and encourages accountability".
The two ferries, Glen Sannox and an unnamed vessel known as Hull 802 will be delayed until at least next year – five years later than planned.
The first ship was meant to enter service on the Arran route in the summer of 2018 but is not expected to be ready until next year at the earliest - five years late. Hull 802, destined for an Outer Hebrides route, has gone the same way. The latest estimated cost for both ships is at least around a quarter of a billion pounds, off an original fixed contract price of £97m.
Both remain at the state-owned Ferguson Marine shipyard in Port Glasgow, which was nationalised after being saved from administration in 2018 when a number of problems were discovered.
The yard has come under scrutiny repeatedly in Parliament, most recently after an Audit Scotland report found that ministers went ahead with the contract despite a full refund guarantee not being on offer and concerns raised by the Government’s ferry procurement body, Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL).
The Lib Dems motion follows email correspondence that revealed the Finance Secretary Kate Forbes wanted to keep a note of her meetings with staff at Ferguson Marine private in August last year.
It revealed the extent of negativity from staff at the yard.
In a debate on Wednesday, a motion amendment from Scottish Labour's shadow cabinet minister Neil Bibby, backed the Lib Dems call and called on the First Minister to "lead government efforts to secure the completion of the vessesl by taking ministerial responsibility for government investments in Ferguson Marine".
Finance secretaeryKate Forbes, also defended the decision to save the yard as it saved jobs and admitted progress has not been as fast as the government want.
She said: "The challenges have been great. Progress has not been as fast as we would have liked. I made my views abundantly clear to the chief executive and the chair that these vessels must be delivered.
"The board is ultimately required to deliver on our clear expectations for the business. Those expectations are threefold. One, they must complete those vessels successfully, and at the fastest most achievable pace, they must make the yard competitive, productive and efficient. And they must win further work on the basis of the yard's ability to deliver."
She added: “Lessons have been learned, not least in the most recent procurement exercise and also in the way that the Scottish Government invest in private companies."
Because of the co-operation agreement between the SNP and the Scottish Greens in Holyrood, the motion was not expected to pass.
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