The convener of a Holyrood committee has questioned the Scottish Government’s transport arm over two missing paragraphs in a letter about the Ferguson Marine ferries.
Transport Scotland has blamed a “formatting error” for the missing paragraphs, but said the Public Audit Committee already had access to a full copy of the letter.
The committee has been looking into the circumstances of the procurement and construction of the Glen Sannox and as-yet-unnamed hull 802 at the publicly-owned yard in Port Glasgow.
The ferries are due to be delivered as much as five years later than planned at a cost of more than £300m – more than three times the initial contract value.
The committee had asked Transport Scotland for any correspondence it had between the then transport minister, Derek Mackay, and local MSP, Stuart McMillan, from the period before the yard was made the preferred bidder.
The MSP had asked Mackay if a builder’s refund guarantee - a provision designed to protect public money - was required for the contract to be awarded to Ferguson, to which the minister said that Scotland’s ferry procurement body had “on occasion taken alternative approaches”.
The contents of both McMillan’s initial entreaties to the minister in early 2015 and his reply were given to the committee in October by the MSP, but when the same letter was handed over by Transport Scotland, two paragraphs - part of which dealt with the issue of refund guarantees - were missing.
In a new letter to the interim chief executive of Transport Scotland, Michelle Quinn, committee convener Richard Leonard said: “The committee was disappointed to receive this response one week later than the deadline provided.
“We were also concerned to note that the copy of the letter from the former minister provided by Transport Scotland excludes two paragraphs when compared to the version of the same letter we received from Mr McMillan.
“No attempt has been made to correct this omission.”
Leonard asked for a complete version of the letter to be handed over along with an explanation for the omission.
A Transport Scotland spokesman said: “The chief executive of Transport Scotland has already responded to her letter – this was a formatting error and was previously referred to when the First Minister gave evidence to the committee.
“The full copy of the letter referred to was already available to the Public Audit Committee - provided by Stuart MacMillan MSP, the original correspondent - and has been on their website for some time.
“The First Minister will respond to her letter in due course.”
Meanwhile, the convener also wrote to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon again for more information on her previous appearance before the committee and the tranche of documents she has already handed over, including asking for any minutes or notes taken as a result of a meeting between her and former Ferguson owner, Jim McColl, in May 2017.
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