A PRIVATE sector operator whose bid to take over ferry services in the western isles was rejected has revealed it never expected to win the contract.
In a notice to the stock exchange yesterday, Serco, which currently operates the Northlink Ferries service to Orkney and Shetland and the Caledonian Sleeper franchise, indicated that it had never had high hopes of winning the CalMac contract and revealed that Transport Scotland had deemed its bid "non-compliant" - meaning that it had failed to meet some of the minimum criteria set out in the tender.
In a statement, it said: "Serco’s bid sought certain changes to commercial terms aimed at striking a balance between the risks and rewards involved, but in so doing the bid was deemed non-compliant by Transport Scotland ... there is no significant impact to our previously stated guidance given the low probability of success we had ascribed to this bid."
One industry source said this hinted at a bidding process skewed in favour of the public sector candidate, adding: "CalMac didn't win. They just haven't lost."
A spokesman for Serco declined to comment.
It came as the Scottish Government announced plans to award the next eight-year contract to run the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services network to the existing state-owned operator, Caledonian MacBrayne.
The new contract will begin on October 1 this year.
Ministers had faced criticism for opening the contest to private bidders - a move they insisted was required under EU rules - and would have faced a backlash from political opponents and campaigners if the £900 million contract had been awarded to Serco Caledonian Ferries Ltd.
Trade unions welcomed the announcement, which came with assurances that there would be no compulsory redundancies and no change to the CalMac pensions scheme.
Mick Cash, General Secretary of the RMT, said it was a "complete vindication" of a walkout by CalMac members last summer in protest over the potential takeover by Serco. The strike saw two thirds of west coast ferry services cancelled.
Mr Cash added: "This is a major victory for RMT and its successful defence of the principle of public ownership and operation of lifeline Scottish ferry services."
CalMac's contract bid makes almost 350 commitments to improve the service, including investments in vessel and port improvements, increasing traffic, providing more opportunities for local employment, more community engagement, and maintaining all existing routes and services.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said CalMac's bid offered a "good deal" for the communities it serves.
She added: "Scottish ministers will retain control of all of important issues, such as fares and timetables, through the public service contract."
Scottish Labour MSP, David Stewart, said the party would now campaign to halt tendering processes for the Gourock to Dunoon and Northern Isles Services ferry contracts.
He said: “It is clear that a tendering process was not necessary, and we have to ask why the SNP Government thought it was necessary to go throw a costly and time consuming process, which put the future of a public CalMac at risk, when it simply didn't need to."
Martin Dorchester, managing director, said: "Our successful bid demonstrates our ability to provide innovative service improvements and value for money for customers."
Kevin Craven, chief executive of Serco's UK central government division, said: "We are obviously disappointed by this decision as we believe that we could have made significant improvements to the quality and reliability of these services to the benefit of the communities across the Western Isles."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel