Every one is well aware that there was dirty work at the crossroads, as they say, on Transport Scotland’s 2012 award of the contract to provide ferry services to the Northern Isles.
With four finalists in the bidding, the controversial award went to the privateer, Serco, whose business ethics have since seen a Serious Fraud Office investigation and a period when the company was banned from bidding for public sector contracts.
The established operator, the state owned NorthLink Ferries, one of the state owned David MacBrayne Limited group, wanted to take Transport Scotland to court over the conduct of the tender – but was forbidden to do so by its own sole shareholder, the Scottish Government. In our view, this sort of proscription is an indefensible impediment to the ability to trade.
It was just that, of course, with NorthLink Ferries in the bin and its brand handed to the incoming contract holder, Serco NorthLink.
Another finalist, the unfettered private sector company, Streamline Shipping, took the matter to Judicial Review and lost, under what For Argyll considers to have been an inadequately considered judgment in favour of the Scottish Government. This had recourse to an overly narrow interpretation of what is meant by ‘public interest’.
Streamline then took the matter to a civil action which is not yet resolved. This has a direct bearing on a current issue which we address below.
Shetland Times’ allegations
Now the Shetland Times, with Streamline a Shetland company, has put the Scottish Government firmly in the dock on the way this gender was managed, with a series of specific allegations on what has all the appearances of having been a cowboy operation, certainly in respect of the level of competence obtaining, if not also in integrity.
The Shetland Times has been assisted by the work of Labour’s Highlands and Islands MSP, David Stewart, who used Freedom of Information legislation to get access to crucial documents.
These questions arising from this investigation now be answered.
One of the Shetland Times’ insider contacts has described the affair as ‘a cock-up that turned into a cover-up.The paper is alleging that:
- The sitting operator, NorthLink, had actually offered a lower financial bid – in a contract whose scoring was clearly weighted on price.
- The envelope containing details of NorthLink’s pitch was returned to the company unread, with its seal unbroken., on what appears to be n imperfectly understood and legally questionable technicality.
- The Scottish Government then dismissed the Northlink bid as ‘non-compliant’.
Transport Scotland has gone for the bunker in response to the revelations, with The Shetland Times request for an interview with the current Transport Minister, Derek MacKay, they were given only a couple of bland paragraphs composed from the legendary modus operandi of the ostrich and issued by an anonymous ‘spokesperson’.
This said: ‘ NorthLink Ferries’ quality submission did not meet the minimum requirements set out in the invitation to tender and therefore their financial submission was returned to them unopened.’
Mr Mackay was not Transport Minister at the time of this charade, which was presided over by his predecessor, Keith Brown, now Cabinet Secretary for Investment and Infrastructure, who seems to have left the entire process to his officials.
In Shetland in the run up to indyref 1 and asked about this mess, Mr Brown delared that he ‘was also surprised when Serco got the contract’.
No lessons learned: information obtained under FoI requests from For Argyll
While the Scottish Government and Transport Scotland must now be openly and fully answerable to the Scottish public on this affair, it is not the end of the matter.
The tender process for the award of the massive contract to provide extended ferry services for the entire west coast of Scotland – the Clyde and Hebridean Ferry Services – this time to include the provision of local ferry services currently operated by local authorities], is currently in train.
On 23rd March 2015 For Argyll got answers from Transport Scotland on a series of questions it had put under Freedom of Information.
The pdf document linked below shows the questions we put and the answers we received. The questions germane to the revelations by The Shetland Times are 3, 4 and 5, all dealt with in a single answer and a series of three project organisational diagrams.
Knowing that the handling of the Northern Isles tender was far from being above scrutiny and knowing that the Streamline legal action is unresolved outstanding litigation – where the finding may be against Transport Scotland – we were concerned to discover if Transport Scotland had protected the integrity of the latest tender process for the major Clyde and Hebridean Ferry Services [CHFS] contract.
With legal judgment not yet pronounced, we had expected that Transport Scotland would have been careful not to put the same senior project management staff in charge of the CHFS procurement as had been in charge of the disputed Northern Isles Ferry Services contract.
As can be seen from the organisational diagrams released, it seems to us that, worryingly, this has not been the case; and that senior officers, and one in particular, who led the 2012 process are in charge of the CHFS tender today. Others, protected by being identified only by role and not name, may well also have played their part in the earlier ‘cock-up’.
This is contrary to sound management practice and is a matter of both surprise and serious concern. We were uneasy about this situation when we received the information; but the allegations made by the Shetland Times are so shocking that we fell that this now needs to be brought to public attention.
The Shetland Times’ insider contact has said that the 2012 award to Serco was ‘a cock-up which led to a cover-up’
The tendering process of this current contract, as with that used in the 2012 contract – is again a new departure for Transport Scotland officials.
If indeed incompetence was the problem in 2012, there can be no certainty that the same less than adequate competence may not cause problems again, faced with new and unfamiliar procedures. There appears to be no protection against that in the current arrangements.
The west coast’s lifeline ferry services cannot be left vulnerable to the uncertainties, loss of confidence and the litigation that would follow from another cock-up.
Transport Scotland seems like one of CMAL’s ageing vessels, bedevilled by serial ‘technical problems’ and in need of replacement.
