QUESTIONS have been raised about the legality of awarding key lifeline ferry contracts to Turkey - after ministers failed to detail any Scottish community benefits from sending the work overseas.
The Turkish shipyard Cemre Marin Endustri has been announced as the preferred bidder for the £105m order against three other yards which will increase vehicle and freight capacity by nearly 40 per cent.
The move has already been described as an "embarrassment" for the SNP by the Scottish Conservatives.
But there is new concern that neither Scottish Government-controlled Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL), which owns the nation's ageing ferry fleet, nor the Scottish Government has outlined what the community benefits are from giving the work to Turkey.
Alba Party deputy Kenny MacAskill has said that Inverclyde-based CMAL must now be scrapped.
Ministers have previously been warned that they may have acted unlawfully by failing to give nationalised shipbuilder Ferguson Marine a look in for a £100m contract to create two new lifeline ferries to serve Islay.
READ MORE: 'Embarrassment': Two CalMac ferries to be built in Turkey
The Turkish yard won in front of four overseas companies to bid for the contract to build the two vessels - and excluded the Inverclyde shipbuilder.
The ground-breaking Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 when it was brought was seen by many as a welcome move away from contracts awarded only on the basis of the lowest price towards those which offer the best long-term outcomes for Scotland’s communities and the environment.
Public contracts valued at £4m or above have specific requirements in relation to community benefits in the authority area that a contract is issued.
These should include training and recruitment, the availability of sub-contracting opportunities and that it is intended to improve the economic, social or environmental well-being of the area.
Cemre Shipyard. Source: YouTube
If no community benefits are sought in a contract, a statement must be published on justifying the decision.
Finance secretary Kate Forbes stated that in line with the Procurement Reform (Scotand) Act 2014, bidders for the Islay procurement process were required to detail the community benefits they are able to offer within their response to the invitation to tender.
Submissions from the four yards were being evaluated including the responses to the community benefits section included within the original contract notice.
A letter from Ms Forbes to Chris McEleny, an Inverclyde councillor and general secretary of Alex Salmond's Alba Party said: " A recommendation on the preferred yard for the detailed design, construction, testing, survey, equipping, completion and delivery of the Ro-Pax Ferries, including their commitments to community benefits, is expected by end February 2022 with a decision on whether to proceed with the contract expected by end March."
Both Transport Scotland and CMAL have so far failed to outline what community benefits there are from the contract award.
Mr McEleny said: “The Scottish Government gave me written guarantees that there would be community benefits resulting from this contract yet in the release celebrating sending Scottish work to Turkey not a single benefit is listed.
He said thet move was " a betrayal to Clyde shipyard workers and that secrecy over whether there are any community benefits will deliver is a "kick in the teeth to communities desperate for economic intervention".
He said: "That publicly owned Ferguson’s was previously excluded from bidding to build ferries that are owned by the Scottish Government and operated on behalf of the Scottish Government was outrageous. To now announce they will be built in Turkey without listing what the benefits will be to our local communities is a complete betrayal of the people that live and work here.
"It is a legal requirement to set out what the community benefits are, to award this contracts without any community benefits would be unlawful. Perhaps the government minister never mentioned the benefits this contract would bring because Ms Gilruth knows how embarrassing it would be to pretend that ships built in Turkey will provide economic, employment or training opportunities to people in Inverclyde.
"I will be asking the government to urgently confirm the details of this award and to again remind them that if they don’t start directly awarding contracts to Scottish yards instead of sending work abroad then they will be effectively shutting down shipbuilding on the Clyde no differently than from how Thatchers Tories did in the 1980s."
Ferguson Marine which runs the last remaining shipyard on the lower Clyde was nationalised after it financially collapsed in August 2019, amid soaring costs and delays to the construction of two lifeline island ferries.
It came five years after tycoon Jim McColl first rescued the yard when it went bust.
The delivery of new island ferries MV Glen Sannox and Hull 802, which were due online in the first half of 2018, was found to be between four and five years late, with costs doubling to over £200m.
Earlier this year it emerged that the completion of the long-overdue ferries had been delayed again.
The Islay route is already one of the busiest services for freight on the Clyde and Hebrides network, and CMAL says that the incoming ferries will support the island’s vital economic activity.
The four shortlisted shipyards were to submit their technical and commercial proposals for the design and construction of the two vessels.
The successful initial bids were from Damen Shipyard in Romania, Remontowa Shipbuilding in Poland, and Turkish shipyards Sefine Denizcilik Tersanecilik Turizm, and Cemre Marin Endustri.
It was confirmed Ferguson Marine embarked in a bid for the contract through the initial Pre-Qualification Questionnaire process but failed to make the shortlist.
Mr MacAskill said: "We already knew that a kick in the teeth was coming after Ferguson’s shipyard in Port Glasgow was excluded from even bidding for this lucrative contracts. Over £100M of procurement of invested in Inverclyde would’ve supported hundreds of jobs and provided the foundation to start rebuilding a bright, long term future for the yard. Instead Scottish public funds will be propping up jobs in Turkey. This must act as the final message for the Scottish Government to wake up and scrap CMAL."
CMAL and Transport Scotland were both asked what the community benefits were but did not respond.
Transport Scotland said in a prepared statement: “CMAL is bound by the requirement to openly tender for these works and undertook the procurement in line with all legal requirements, attracting 11 bids from shipyards around the world.
“Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow and another UK yard did submit bids, but did not meet the initial criteria to be considered at the second stage.
“While it is disappointing that Ferguson Marine was unsuccessful on this occasion, we are fully committed to supporting the yard to secure a suitable future, including a pipeline of future work, to help protect jobs and commercial shipbuilding on the Clyde. The Scottish Government stands firm on its commitment to the vessels, the workforce and the yard at Ferguson.
“It is no secret that the need for additional tonnage for the CMAL fleet is extremely pressing and it is important that we now focus on bringing these two new vessels into service as quickly as possible.”
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