Hansard

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in the debate on behalf of Scottish Labour. I wish my colleague Alex Rowley a speedy recovery from his recent planned surgery, and I wish Kevin Stewart well, too.

When I start my speeches in Parliament, I almost always say that I welcome the chance to speak in the debate, but there is nothing to welcome about one of the biggest public procurement disasters in the history of devolution, which has resulted in ferries that are three times over budget and five years late. However, I want to thank the Public Audit Committee and, in particular, the convener and its officials, for their extensive work, which they did in spite of the difficulties that they encountered, as outlined by Mr Hoy.

The motion asks us to note the conclusions and recommendations of the report. I not only do that but put on record that I agree with those recommendations, even if the SNP members of the committee, who tried to remove any criticism of Scottish Government ministers from the report, do not. I say to them that almost everyone with any sense in Scotland knows that the Scottish Government is ultimately responsible and at serious fault for this fiasco. The attitude and failure of those SNP committee members to fully recognise that reflects very badly indeed on them.

This week on South Uist, as we do every week on many of our islands, we see the impact of the ferries debacle, with people paying the cost of this Government’s failure. Of course we need to look at how our ferry services will be run in the future, but the number 1 reason for people in Scotland not having a reliable ferry service is that they do not have a reliable ferry fleet. Despite what the First Minister claimed earlier in the chamber, over the SNP’s time in office, only six ferries have been built in 16 years, whereas 10 ferries were built by the previous Labour-Liberal Democrat Government in half that time—in eight years.

Because of the current fiasco, we face a situation in which our ferry network is in crisis and we are having to build ferries in Turkey. We are also having to pay £1 million a month for the catamaran MV Alfred as a relief vessel.

The Public Audit Committee’s report sheds light on how that situation came to pass and raises a series of concerns about the SNP’s financial mismanagement and irresponsibility. It also highlights the considerable lack of transparency and accountability on the part of all those involved, including Government ministers. From FMEL not being open about its inability to provide a full builders refund guarantee to the current First Minister exercising “poor judgement”, in the words of the committee, when he was transport minister and stating that he had no knowledge of the preferred bidder when evidence suggests that he did, the entire scandal has been characterised by the complete opposite of transparency.

It is little wonder that there are still so many unanswered questions. In particular, the fact that serious questions about competition and serious concerns over the integrity of the procurement process remain compromises public trust. The findings of the KC’s inquiry must be shared with the Parliament in full—no ifs, no buts. I say to the cabinet secretary that it is not for CMAL to tell us what it will and will not share with the Government. That report must be shared in full—no ifs, no buts. [Interruption.] I could not make out what the cabinet secretary was saying there. I would welcome confirmation from the cabinet secretary that the KC’s findings will be given to Parliament in full, with no redactions.

No one in Government has taken responsibility for the situation. We have had a merry-go-round of ministers, who once could not get down to the yard for a photo opportunity quickly enough, but who are now desperate to avoid any association with the fiasco. Real responsibility would mean Government ministers fixing this mess and seeing the job through until it is done.

The Government has also failed to hold senior management to account. Those managers should not have received a penny in bonuses while ferries were delayed and over budget. To add insult to injury, the former turnaround director was paid £2 million, despite overseeing more delays and increasing costs. People do not want to hear the Government say, “I agree with you and that was wrong”; they want ministers to get their money back.

There is a lot of blame to go around in this fiasco. Ministers, agencies and management are all responsible but, as the convener said, the one group of people who have been entirely blameless throughout are those in the Ferguson’s workforce. In fact, if the warnings from the GMB union had been listened to earlier, we might not be in this mess now. It is vital that we listen to them in future.

Along with Alex Rowley, I met GMB shop stewards Alex Logan and John McMunagle at the yard some weeks ago. They are calling for investment in facilities at the yard and for it to be directly awarded contracts to build smaller, simpler, standardised vessels in order to secure a positive future for Ferguson’s and its workforce. That work could easily be done at the yard, as has been demonstrated previously. The workforce should not be judged because of these two vessels. The Ministry of Defence work from BAE Systems is a vote of confidence in the yard and the Scottish Government should follow suit by awarding contracts from the small ferry vessel replacement programme, although with robust oversight in place.

We need a national ferry building programme that gives our islanders the ferries that they deserve and builds them efficiently here in Scotland, not in Turkey. Nor should the Government sell off the yard now. This is the Government’s mess and it is the Government’s job to clear it up and to help restore the yard’s reputation.

The committee’s report highlights a lack of financial responsibility, transparency and, ultimately, responsibility. There has been inadequate oversight of the entire situation from start to finish and a complete disregard for stakeholder engagement. Despite what SNP members of the committee may think, islanders, workers and all of Scotland’s taxpayers are paying the price for this SNP Government’s incompetence and financial mismanagement.