SHAMED former minister Derek Mackay has insisted he takes his “share of responsibility” for the SNP’s ferries fiasco in his return to Holyrood since being sacked.
Mr Mackay appeared before MSPs on Holyrood’s Public Audit Committee over his role in the botched ferries contacts scandal.
The Ferguson’s yard has since been nationalised to save it from administration and the Glen Sannox and the as-yet-unnamed hull 802 are projected to cost two-and-a-half times more than planned and be delivered five years late.
Critics have claimed the contract was rushed to allow for an announcement to be made at the SNP conference in 2015, but the former minister rejected the assertion.
The former transport and finance minister was sacked by Nicola Sturgeon on the morning he was set to deliver his budget in February 2020 after messages he sent to a 16-year-old boy were made public.
He did not return to Holyrood while he remained an MSP until last year’s Holyrood election.
The Scottish Government has pointed the finger at Mr Mackay as the lead minister when the contracts were awarded to Ferguson’s marine in 2015.
Mr Mackay was quizzed about him being “lined up to be the fall guy” as part of “operation blame Derek Mackay” by the Scottish Government.
He said he would “take my share of responsibility” and acknowledged “there are multiple failings”.
“I don’t think it all rests on me”, he added.
“I’m taking my share of responsibility – I was the lead minister.”
Mr Mackay told MSPs that he recognised “a catastrophic failure at Ferguson’s to complete the vessels on time and on budget”.
Mr Mackay insisted that “at every stage and in every decision, I acted with the best of intentions with the interest of island communities, workers, Scottish shipbuilding, and communities that rely upon the success foremost in my mind”.
He added: “As vessel construction entered difficulty I set out the objectives to complete the vessels, safeguard the workforce, and give the yard a future.
“These are objectives I do not regret and I believe that Fergusons is still operational today with the future because of the objectives set at the time.”
Mr Mackay rejected claims that the decision to award the contract was politically motivated.
He said: “Nobody was ever compromised on that matter, the decision to award the contract to Ferguson was based on Ferguson’s bid, nothing else.”
The committee probe was prompted by a report from Auditor General Stephen Boyle, who found there to be a lack of documentary evidence for the decision to move ahead with the contract despite the lack of a full builder’s guarantee – an industry standard designed to protect the buyer.
Business minister Ivan McKee confirmed this week that the vessels are on track to be delivered in May and December of next year respectively and there is currently no expected increase to the projected overspend.
Mr Mackay said he was “concerned” at the ime about the lack of a full builders guarantee, but insisted there were “mitigations”.
He told MSPs that a full builders fund guarantee is “not a panacea”.
Mr Mackay added: “The note didn’t suggest that Ferguson’s was incapable of building these vessels or even that there was a high risk that they were going to be late or the contractor wouldn’t perform.
“The risk was around the financing. Fmel (Fergusons’s) was a relatively new financial entity but the shipyard was already well-established and had been producing vessels for the Calmac fleet.
“So I was looking at the assessment, the history, the confidence in the yard, the fact that the evaluation exercise showed that Fmel came out on top as overall bidder.
“So there was a lot of reasons to have reassurance and confidence in the submission that has been put to me.”
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