Kate Forbes has hit back at the former owner of Ferguson's shipyard who claimed two new ferries were given "for political purposes".
The Finance Secretary blasted Jim McColl, a former economic adviser to the SNP government, saying if it weren't for the Scottish Government then the yard on the Clyde would have went into administration.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, McColl suggested the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon misled parliament last week when she claimed the contracts were signed off by disgraced former minister Derek Mackay.
The Scottish Government has come under pressure after an Audit Scotland report published last week revealed that two new ferries built at Ferguson Marine will now cost £250 million, more than double their original price and be around four years late.
A damning report by the financial watchdog said it could not establish why ministers dropped a requirement for full repayment guarantees if the billionaire McColl’s Ferguson yard failed to build the ships on time or went bust.
McColl said ministers acted in haste and against the advice of ferry company CMAL so the contract could be announced at their autumn conference in 2015.
He said the contracts were given “for political purposes” and “everything was about the optics and timing the announcements for political gain.”
Speaking on Good Morning Scotland, Forbes hit back saying the delays are down to the construction of the vessels.
She added: "The Audit Scotland report said there were no material issues with the procurement process, and in terms of the full refund guarantee mitigations were put in place.
"On that balance of risks, if we pulled the plug on the contract at that point we wouldn't have proceeded with those two vessels.
"The yard, of course, would probably have gone into administration.
"The root cause of the delays is the construction, it's not the contractual arrangements. The full refund guarantee is an important issue."
Host Gary Robertson asked: "The other issue is it not that this was actually given the go ahead, that actually the designs hadn't been fully worked out?"
Forbes replied: "Well, you highlight another important point which comes back to construction.
"We are focused here on procurement and refund guarantees. The fundamental problem here was the construction process. We had a private company that won a contract fairly and squarely and the construction process was inefficient and Audit Scotland unpacks this further."
Robertson asked: "Was the problem here the rush to announce some good news at your party conference?"
Forbes replied: "I fundamentally disagree with that.
"Again, I would say if we're serious about learning the lessons of this whole situation, we'll base that analysis on facts in the independent Audit Scotland report and not the opinions of somebody with vested interest in a Sunday newspaper.
"That timetable does not stack up. Ferguson 's was publicly announced as the preferred bidder in August 2015.
"I think the conference you're referring to was sometime in October. The election wasn't until the following May and this whole process was months if not years in the making."
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