THE former owner of the shipyard embroiled in the ferries debacle has been pulled up for telling an untruth while accusing Nicola Sturgeon of lying.
Jim McColl (below, right), who was the owner of Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd (FMEL) when the firm collapsed and was nationalised, said the First Minister had told “a lie” when she claimed 400 jobs had been saved by taking the Port Glasgow yard into state ownership.
But he was also accused of telling an untruth when he was confronted with the fact he had falsely claimed he had not signed the contract for the ferries.
Documents were later produced which showed he had.
Challenged on Good Morning Scotland about Sturgeon’s claim 400 jobs had been saved by the awarding the ferries contract, McColl said: “That is a lie and at the time there were 150 employed not 400.
“I think she was a bit rattled in the interview and she mixed it up with the statement that they make about saving the yard.
“It’s not true.”
Faced with the assertion that the public would see the contract to have been “as welcome” for FMEL as it would have been for the Scottish Government when awarded, McColl insisted the yard was doing well and would have survived had it not been awarded the CalMac contract.
“At the time, the yard had outstanding work and it was still working on the ferry Katrina which wasn’t launched until 2016, was delivered early and on budget,” he said.
“It also had additional construction work and fabrication work so there was no danger of the yard going under at that time. That was a slip by the First Minister in the interview and it was about the constant repeated statements she makes about 400 employees at the yard.”
But McColl also faced the embarrassing revelation that he mixed up his facts by saying he had not signed the ferries contract.
He said: “I did sign it, that was a mistake.”
Asked why he had claimed not to have signed, he added: “Because at the time I wasn’t aware that I had until I checked up after I’d said it. It was signed by the CEO of the yard and I did countersign it.”
The tycoon also said his firm had been upfront with the Scottish Government from the off that the firm would not be able to provide a full cash refund if the work was not completed or the yard went bust.
This is central to the scandal surrounding the ferries contracts because senior civil servants warned the Scottish Government against awarding the contract to FMEL as the company would not commit to offering a builder’s refund.
Sturgeon has said it was “regrettable” there was no evidence showing the reasons ministers had chosen to go ahead regardless.
McColl claimed it was commonplace for a company to be unable to provide a full cash refund guarantee.
While McColl insisted the firm was “confident” it was capable of completing the Glen Sannox and Hull 802 ferries, he denied using the contracts to squeeze more money out of the taxpayer.
When the contract was initially awarded, it was valued at £97 million and by the time FMEL fell into administration, the company had received £128.25m from the Scottish Government.
McColl said: “There are very reputable reports in place to show that there were so many changes to the design after we got the contract, I think it’s down as 346 owner observation requests, these are design changes from a specification that wasn’t thoroughly thought out when it was placed.”
He admitted there was “some small responsibility” on the part of his company for the delays to the ferries, which are now to be completed more than four years late and more than two times overbudget.
But he appeared to blame the Government for the bulk of the problems which have plagued construction since the contracts were first awarded in 2015.
It comes after Scottish Labour were accused on Monday by the GMB union which represents workers at the Inverclyde yard of making “careless” attacks on the Scottish Government to score political points.
An official representing Ferguson Marine workers warned Anas Sarwar to dial down the rhetoric or risk imperilling the future of the yard.
