Nicola Sturgeon has insisted she will answer "all and any questions" on the ferry fiasco at a government-owned shipyard.
Opposition MSPs last week called for the First Minister to give evidence to a Holyrood committee on how Ferguson Marine was awarded a contract to build two new ferries for Caledonian MacBrayne.
The yard in Port Glasgow was bought over in 2014 by billionaire industrialist Jim McColl and was handed the ferry work the following year despite concerns raised by civil servants over value for money.
The vessels remain unfinished and Ferguson Marine was nationalised in 2019 after the business was plunged into administration after years of delays and cost overruns.
McColl used an interview with a Sunday newspaper yesterday to claim SNP 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.”
Asked about McColl's comments today, the First Minister told LBC Radio: "It is absolutely, flatly, not the case.
"The procurement of the ferries - the awarding of that contract - was done in line with normal procurement processes with proper due diligence.
"And of course, Jim McColl signed that contract and it was his company that then became responsible for constructing the vessels.
"Clearly, the situation with the delays to the ferries and the overrun in terms of the cost is highly unsatisfactory and I would certainly not suggest otherwise.
"There is a lot of lessons being learned and of course there is a focus now the yard is in public ownership on getting those ferries completed as quickly as possible."
Asked if she maintained that Derek Mackay was responsible for the contract, the FM added: "What I maintain is what I said in parliament.
"We are a government that operates by collective responsibility - and ultimately I am responsible for all of the decisions that the government take."
She continued: "I've never shied away from being accountable to parliament in answering questions.
"And on this, I have no hesitation in answering all and any questions.
"The Government has taken decisions that at all times were about protecting jobs in shipbuilding and protecting the future of commercial shipbuilding on the Clyde."
Graham Simpson, the Scottish Conservative transport spokesman, said: "It's not normal practice to ignore the experts, as the SNP did when they discarded CMAL’s advice.
"It’s not normal practice that Audit Scotland can’t find a shred of evidence to support a government decision. It’s not normal practice to start building ferries without agreeing a design for them.
"And it’s definitely not normal practice to get rid of the usual safeguards that protect Scottish taxpayers.
"The only thing that’s normal practice about this scandal is the SNP Government have once again made a complete mess of it and cost Scottish taxpayers a fortune.
"Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP are tying themselves in knots trying to explain away a disastrous decision that Jim McColl claims they made for political purposes."
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