The wellbeing economy secretary Mairi McAllan has defended the huge pay off to be given to the sacked chief executive of the nationalised ferry fiasco.
It is understood that £205,000-a-year Ferguson Marine chief David Tydeman would be entitled to six months pay in lieu of notice despite having his contract terminated by the board after telling ministers there would be further delays to two ferries being built at the Inverclyde yard.
Loss-making Ferguson Marine has refused to discuss what the pay off would be and a spokesman would only say: "He will receive what he is legally entitled."
Andrew Miller, the chairman of Ferguson Marine said in confirming that departure of Mr Tydeman that the company needed "strong leadership" to ensure its long-term future.
Ministers had expressed regular concern at increases in costs and delays in the chief executive's quarterly updates.
Asked why Mr Tydeman was getting a payoff if he was fire, and how much he was getting, Ms McAllan said: "The decision to terminate the former CEOs contract was a matter for the board and the board has said that the action was necessary to ensure a strong leadership amid what a spokesperson for the board is quoted as calling concerns around performance and equally.
"Mr Tydeman is entitled to contractual payments, which he has, or will receive and nothing more."
She declined to talk about how much the departed publicly funded company chief would be receiving.
She was also unable to explain the depth of the new delays and extra costs that were intimated before the sacking.
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Costs continue to soar over new ferries Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa being built at the Inverclyde yard, which were due online in the first half of 2018, with one initially to serve Arran and the other to serve the Skye triangle routes to North Uist and Harris, but are at least six years late, with costs expected to be quadruple the original £97m contract. It has been confirmed that both are now to serve Arran.
Glen Sannox, was launched by Nicola Sturgeon nearly seven years ago and is not expected to be ready till July at the earliest.
Glen Rosa was meant to be delivered to CalMac in August 2018, but that is currently scheduled for May 2025.
But the dates of arrival have been constantly in a state of flux as their construction has been plagued by design challenges, cost overruns and delays.
In the midst of the delays and soaring costs, Ferguson Marine under the control of tycoon Jim McColl fell into administration and was nationalised at the end of 2019 with CMAL and the yard's management blaming each other.
Mr Tydeman is being replaced by fourth generation shipbuilder John Petticrew as interim chief executive who is based in Canada.
According to Ferguson Marine Mr Petticrew has a "long career in shipbuilding and infrastructure construction with over 40 years of experience, spanning three different continents".
It has been confirmed he will be temporarily re-locating to the UK for the new job.
Ms McAllan told MSPs: "I will certainly take the opportunity to meet with him as soon as I can to make clear ministers expectations around delivery of the vessels and in respect of support for the workforce going forward."
She added: "I was formally notified on Monday of potential delays crystallizing, but the new executive team and the board will now interrogate those."
Scottish shadow transport minister Graham Simpson said Mr Tydeman who had the "impossible job of turning things around where a previous turnaround director had failed was "brutally sacked" and believed it was because he was being "too honest about the problems".
He said: "I think he was sacked for demanding answers from the government about future investment in the yard. But we were told that Mr Tydeman was sacked for performance issues. So what were these performance issues?"
Mr Tydeman was at the centre of controversy when the Herald revealed last year he got an estimated £20,000 golden hello while standing to gain up to £80,000 in bonus payments.
The Ferguson Marine Glasgow (Port Glasgow) chief executive received £1000 a day for just over eight weeks work at the start of his time with the nationalised company thanks to a salary boost.
It led to new concerns about the bonus culture at the shipyard firm delivering two long-delayed ferries which has received over £450m of public money and led to new calls for a public inquiry.
The chairman of FMPG said in the summer of last year that controversial bonuses were expected to continue to be paid - despite the First Minister saying at the end of April, last year he did not expect them to continue.
A secret bonus bill to Ferguson Marine management reached £134,218 over two years, while the two ferries remained undelivered.
Mr Tydeman, who was on a £205,000-a-year basic salary received around £57,500 for the first two months of his appointment - over £20,000 more than the pro-rata rate.
But it was confirmed that the extra payments in terms of salary were given in the form of "recruitment costs" and a relocation package for Mr Tydeman establishing a base in the local area.
The bonus culture concerns came in the wake of an outcry over the more than £2000-a-day remuneration, made up of fees and expenses given to Ferguson Marine's previous Scottish Government-appointed turnaround director Tim Hair who left his post in February, 2022.
The Scottish Government defended the payments to Mr Hair as being "in the middle of the industry norm".
Mr Tydeman's 30% bonus package had previously been kept secret by the shipyard firm, and blocked in at least one Freedom of Information request.
But a confidential memo from the Scottish Government's commercial interventions department on Mr Tydeman's remuneration package states that recruitment consultants had advised them that elements of his pay package including relocation allowance and bonus arrangements were "expected" for an "appointment of this kind".
It had already been confirmed that £87,000 had been paid to certain members of the management team for performance in 2021/22 with a further £47,000 more expected in 2022/23. And the Ferguson Marine chairman has said that it is perfectly reasonable that performance payments continue to be paid into this financial year.
Ferguson Marine is due to submit a new business case for this to the Government by the end of this month that aims to transition the yard away from the delivery of the ferries into projects.
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