Caledonian MacBrayne whose order for two ferries is sinking to the tune of £200 million.
By Democrat reporter
Contracts worth more than £15m have been awarded as part of work to complete the construction of two delayed and over budget ferries.
Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Limited is building the boats for the SNP government at a yard on the Clyde for Caledonian MacBrayne’s (CalMac) Arran and Hebrides services.
It is widely recognised that the then SNP Finance Secretary Derek Mackay blundered badly when he made the decision to “nationalise” the project.
Mr Mackay resigned from government and did not turn up to deliver the annual budget statement, calling off just the night before he wad due to stand up at Holyrood.
The new Finance Secretary, Katie Forbes, was given a standing ovation by her SNP colleagues when she substituted for him.
All she really did however was read out the words and figures which had been written down for Mr Mackay by his colleagues and advisers.
Mackay has still not resigned as an MSP and is picking up more than £40,000 of taxpayers’ money as a salary while living in a large modern house in a new estate across the Erskine Bridge at Bishopton.
A few miles away in Port Glasgow it is being speculated that the ferries could be three years late in being finished and the project is the subject of a Holyrood inquiry.
Contracts have been placed with three Scottish companies.
Industrialist Jim McColl and disgraced SNP Finance Secretary Derek Mackay.
Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Limited said the work will support more than 200 jobs, with further contracts worth a total of more than £10 million to be awarded in the next few weeks.
Wartsila Ships Electronics Services, Blu Marine and Babcock, Dales Marine and McEvoy Engineering have been given the contracts for carrying out electrical supply work, outfitting passenger areas and constructing pipework.
The final bill for the ferries is expected to be close to double the original budget, a total in excess of £200 million.
In 2015, the £97 million order was considered a lifeline for the Ferguson shipyard in Port Glasgow – the last commercial yard on the Clyde – which had been bought out of administration by industrialist Jim McColl the previous year.
But the contract resulted in the yard re-entering administration. The yard has since been nationalised and the final cost of building the two new ferries for Arran and the Hebrides is expected to be close to £200m.
Mr McColl, now believed to be Scotland’s richest businessman, once ran a kitchen factory at Broadmeadow Industrial Estate, Dumbarton.
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