SNP ministers are under pressure to call in police following a bombshell documentary over possible preferential treatment in the awarding of a contract for two over-budget and late ferries.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney has called in Audit Scotland to look into the ferry fiasco after the BBC reported Ferguson Marine, the Port Glasgow shipyard that won the contract to build the ferries for the CalMac fleet, was given sight of a more than 400-page document setting out the technical requirements for the vessels.
The reports say a design consultant passed the document to the yard. The shipyard was also allowed to change its design during the tendering process, making its pitch almost £10 million cheaper.
There was also a confidential meeting between the yard and the Scottish Government 's ferry procurement body Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) - a courtesy not extended to other bidders in the process. The body said the change to design was based on a clarification in the size of a gas tank.
Following the bombshell BBC documentary the Scottish Tories have called on Police Scotland to intervene to look at the fiasco.
The party's transport spokesman Graham Simpson said: "This is a scandal. It looks like corporate corruption. And the fact we are only finding out now means it looks like a cover up by the SNP, too.
"So can the minister tell us – who chose to give Ferguson special treatment? If the government accepts this is wrong – and they appear to do that – but they don't know how this happened or who is responsible, then the government must now call in the police to investigate.
"Because if Ferguson received special treatment, for whatever reason, it is beyond a scandal. It is a crime. This alleged rigging of the contract, this potential fraud, has cost the country £250million and counting. So will the government now call in the police, so we can finally find out the truth of what happened here?"
Swinney told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme: "It's not really for me to call the police. The police operate independently of government, and I think if we get to a situation where government ministers are ordering the police about I think the Conservatives themselves would be the first to complain about that.
"So the police don't need an opinion from me about anything about their actions. What the government has done, and I asked the Permanent Secretary of the Scottish Government to raise the issues that were put to me with the Auditor General.
"I welcome that. The statement that was made yesterday by the Auditor General who indicated that Audit Scotland will be looking at the substance of the allegations raised around the procurement by the BBC Scotland programme before deciding of further audit work is required."
CMAL said in a statement that the "technical clarification meeting" is "an ordinary and iterative question-and-answer process where ambiguities within lengthy and complex documents are resolved" and was only done in person because of the proximity of Ferguson Marine in comparison to other yards bidding for the contract - which took part in digital meetings.
The yard was pulled out of administration by the Scottish Government and nationalised in 2019, but a series of issues with the building of the vessels were soon identified that resulted in delays and overspends.
The Glen Sannox and the as-yet-unnamed hull 802 are expected to be completed next year, with the cost some two-and-a-half times the initial £97 million.
Particular focus has fallen on the failure of Ferguson Marine to offer a builder's refund guarantee, which would have protected public money once construction ran into problems.
It was not until after the yard had been made the preferred bidder in the tendering process that its inability to offer the guarantee came to light.
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