SNP ministers damning £250m botched CalMac ferries now 'obsolete'
Tycoon Jim McColl gave damning evidence to MSPs over the two botched ferries being built at Ferguson Marine.
The Tories Jim McColl’s testimony completely 'undermines the Nicola Sturgeon's sole defence for the entire ferries fiasco'
Tycoon Jim McColl has issued a devastating blow to Nicola Sturgeon's government claiming two botched ferries being built at his now nationalised Ferguson Marine are 'obsolete'.
He also said his former Port Glasgow shipyard would have been “flying high” if it had not been awarded the contract for two CalMac ferries.
The saga has seen costs to the taxpayer soar from £97million to at least £240million with two vessels - the MV Glen Sannox and unnamed Hull 802 - five years behind schedule.
The ships are currently being built at the Ferguson Marine shipyard in Port Glasgow, which was saved by the Scottish Government from administration in 2019.
A recent Graham Simpson report said the 2015 deal for the liquefied natural gas ferries (LNG) were approved by ministers without normal financial safeguards being in place.
Addressing MSPs on Thursday, Mr McColl admitted that it had already been agreed that there would be no full refund guarantee on the two ferries before Nicola Sturgeon visited the Port Glasgow shipyard to announce them as the preferred bidder.
Mr McColl insisted that SNP ministers and their ferry quango were told at “the very beginning” Ferguson Marine could not provide a full builder’s guarantee, which would have better protected the public purse.
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He also said the vessels should not use LNG stressing it was now an “obsolete
technology” for ferries and could spew out "putting out poisonous gases" as they
are "not green vessels".
Mr McColl added: "So you are now completing two vessels that are obsolete, and you're not going to run them on LNG anyway, because the infrastructure is not there.
"And if you did, you're going to be putting out poisonous gases between Brodick and Ardrossan and the other routes as well.
“These are not green vessels. They have been wrongly spec’d.”
Meanwhile, Mr McColl said a mistake which added £8.7m to the cost of the ferries was the fault of government-appointed management.
It emerged in February that hundreds of cables already installed on Glen Sannox were too short to reach control panels.
But he told MSPs the problem arose because the position of equipment was changed.
The billionaire blamed Scottish Government ferry procurement agency CMAL for most of the problems with the building of the two CalMac ships, and claimed the nationalisation of the yard in 2019 had been a "catastrophe".
Former turnaround director Tim Hair was also criticised by the billionaire and claimed he made a mistake in dismissing the previous management.
Many of the staff were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements or "gagging orders", because it meant valuable expertise was lost.
He told MSPs: "What was wiped out was all the people who knew what was going on, all the systems that controlled it and the design people who were behind it.
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"There was a black hole there and for six months nobody knew what was going on
in that yard."
It comes after it emerged Scottish ministers are splashing up to £180,000 of taxpayers cash on an independent assessment to “understand what improvements and investment could benefit the shipyard to increase its productivity and competitiveness”.
Details appeared on Public Contracts Scotland with the contract stating: “A window of opportunity has been identified in the yard’s current work programme when any improvements identified in this report could be undertaken at a time that minimises any impact on existing projects and is undertaken in advance of the next prospective vessels being built. “
Scottish Tory Transport spokesperson Graham Simpson said: “Jim McColl’s testimony completely undermines the SNP’s sole defence for the entire ferries fiasco, namely that Ferguson Marine would have folded and hundreds of jobs would have been lost had they failed to award the yard the contract.
"His evidence was a damning indictment of the SNP’s role in a scandal that has betrayed both our island communities and taxpayers.
“It also further strengthened the case for a full independent inquiry to get to the bottom of this murky affair.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat economy spokesperson Willie Rennie said: “The SNP have claimed for months that nationalisation was the only solution and defended their decision to overrule advisers who warned that a full builder’s guarantee was not in place. This is certainly not the view of Jim McColl.
“This evidence suggests that the Government’s own turnaround guru Tim Hair gutted senior staff and allowed specifications to change in ways that racked up huge bills. "
Mr Rennie also called for NDAs signed by staff at Ferguson Marine to be waived.
In response, the Scottish Government said: “MV Glen Sannox and Hull 802 will be vital additions to Scotland’s ferry network and the dual fuel technology ensures they will be greener, quieter and more reliable than previous vessels.
“While LNG is not a long-term alternative to MGO for ferries, it is a proven technology that offers around 20 per cent less carbon emissions than MGO.
"It also has significant local air quality benefits, with shore-powering providing for overnight powering of vessels and significant local noise and air quality improvements for residents and crew.
“LNG infrastructure, including appropriate storage facilities and supply connections, are being developed as part of port expansion and improvement works on routes where the new vessels are expected to be deployed.”