The Scottish Government has announced a “missing” document on the CalMac ferries scandal has been found after an investigation.
Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth said the email proved that one of her predecessors, Derek Mackay, approved a key decision to give contract to the Ferguson shipyard.
The Government has been blasted after the cost of building two ferries at the yard in Port Glasgow soared to least £250 million – two-and-a-half times the original £97 million budget.
The estimated delivery of the two vessels, Glen Sannox and Hull 802, has also been pushed back by five years and the yard had to be brought into public ownership.
Criticism mounted after the Government could not locate an email showing which Minister approved the deal.
In a statement to MSPs, Gilruth said she had some “good news” to share with the Parliament.
“I have that good news literally here in my hand. The missing document has been found. Ministers were advised of this by officials shortly before noon today and I want to take the first available opportunity to give parliament this news.
“The document is an email that makes clear who approved the decision to award the contract to build vessels 801 and 802 to Ferguson shipyard.”
She said the email was sent by the Office of the Minister of Transport, adding: “I hold in my hand that irrefutable documentary evidence that this decision was made rightly and properly by the then transport minister Derek Mackay.”
Mackay later became Finance Secretary but quit his post after it emerged he had bombarded a 16 year old male with messages.
Gilruth said the email had been “buried” in an unnamed official’s electronic files: “This email destroys the opposition's ridiculous conspiracy theories that another minister made this decision and it destroys their unfounded speculation that there was a ministerial direction given.”
Scottish Tory MSP Graham Simpson said: “I hate to break it to Jenny Gilruth but the ‘missing document’ she claims to have discovered is nothing of the sort.
“We already know ministerial approval was given to award the contract to Ferguson Marine. We can gather that from the fact that the yard is – very slowly and very expensively – building the two vessels.
“The missing document we and the Scottish public are seeking is one that tells us why the SNP awarded it to Ferguson, given they were expressly advised not to.
“Simply revealing another email in support of the SNP’s desperate ‘Operation Blame Derek Mackay’ is not going to cut it.
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