Ferry Contract Was Signed Nine Months Before The Boats Existed
Correspondence released under appeal shows officials warned twice that the yard had never built a vessel of the class, and were overruled on both occasions.
By Ines Marchetti · Transport Correspondent · 14 min
\nThe contract to build two ferries for the western route was signed in March of the year before either hull was laid down, according to correspondence released this week after a two-year appeal.
\nOfficials in the procurement directorate wrote to ministers twice, in January and again in February, warning that the yard selected had never delivered a vessel of that displacement and that its recent record on a smaller class was already eleven months late.
\nBoth warnings were acknowledged and neither was acted on. A third note, written after the contract had been signed, records that the department had by then no realistic alternative supplier within the timescale set by the route's licence obligations.
\nThe department has said the decision was taken on the basis of the information available at the time and that the warnings were one input among several. It has not disputed the authenticity of any of the released documents.
\nA parliamentary committee has asked for the remaining eleven documents, which the department is continuing to withhold on the grounds of commercial confidentiality.
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