NICOLA STURGEON was accused of throwing disgraced ex-finance secretary Derek Mackay “under the bus” over the Scottish Government’s disastrous efforts to build two new ferries.

The First Minister insisted she took full responsibility for the failures but said it was her former cabinet secretary who signed off the deal against expert advice.

Earlier this week, Audit Scotland published a scathing report on the procurement of the two new vessels which are now years behind schedule, with costs that have more than doubled, from £97million to at least £240million.

Back in 2014, one week ahead of the independence referendum, former First Minister, Alex Salmond, personally intervened to persuade Yes supporting billionaire businessman Jim McColl to take over the under threat Ferguson’s shipyard in Port Glasgow. 

A year later, at the opening of the SNP’s conference in Aberdeen, Mr Mackay told party members that this new company Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd (FMEL) was the winner of a £97m contract to build two new ships for the state-owned ferry network CalMac (CMAL).

Ferguson's bid was the most expensive of the six yards that tendered but outscored them on "quality".

However, the new firm didn’t have the finance to put in the normal safeguards or guarantees for a public project of this scale - leaving the government at risk. 

Despite CalMac wanting to walk away as “there were too many risks involved to award the contract” and making their objections clear to Transport Scotland at the time, they were overruled by the Scottish Government. 

The Audit Scotland report said it was “not clear what discussions took place between Scottish ministers and Transport Scotland about the contract award.

“There is no documented evidence to confirm why Scottish ministers were willing to accept the risks of awarding the contract to FMEL, despite CMAL’s concerns.

“We consider that there should have been a proper record of this important decision.”

In Parliament on Wednesday, Finance Secretary Kate Forbes said she couldn’t say which minister took the decision to overrule CMAL. 

But During First Minster’s Questions, after Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross asked Ms Sturgeon to say who “gave the green light” for the contract, the SNP leader said: “Who was Transport Minister at the time in question is, of course, a matter of public record. That was Derek Mackay.

“But of course, this is a government and this may be alien to the Conservatives, I understand, but this is a government that operates by collective responsibility.

“And ultimately, as with any decisions - whether I am personally involved in them or not, responsibility stops with me.”

Mr Mackay -  who was promoted to Finance Secretary in May 2016 - was forced to quit the cabinet in 2020 after he was caught inundating a 16-year-old boy with "predatory" messages.

During First Minister's Questions, Mr Ross said Ms Sturgeon was trying to blame her former colleague.

"The First Minister says she takes ultimate responsibility then throws an ex-minister, a disgraced SNP ex-minister under the bus," he said.

He told MSPs: “We are fortunate in Scotland, to have two governments and there's only one of them currently building ships in Scotland that actually sail, and that is because of this First Minister's record in government. 

“So let's look again. Ferguson Marine was the most expensive bidder. Yet, as the First Minister has just said, was chosen on the basis of quality. Chosen on the basis of quality when ferries are two and a half times over budget, hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money has already been wasted.

"There is a five-year delay at least. And there are still 175 faults with the ferries that are still being built. 

“This is one of the worst public spending disasters since devolution and who messed up? Who knows in the SNP's secret Scotland because all the evidence is gone.

"Audit Scotland couldn't get to the bottom of a number of points. The only scraps of paper we have left about this disastrous decision are the old SNP press releases that claimed they were saving Scottish shipbuilding.” 

Responding, the First Minister said there was “one issue where Audit Scotland refers to a lack of documentation – I think that is a matter the Government has to reflect on seriously and will.”

“But there are hundreds of pages of documents and they would bear some attention from Douglas Ross," she added.

The First Minister said it was a “deeply regrettable situation”.

She told MSPs: “At every step, the motivation of the government has been to secure employment, to secure the shipyard and to get these ferries completed and that is what we will continue to focus on. 

“We will learn the lessons in the Audit Scotland report. We will make sure that all of the recommendations in it are taken forward. But Douglas Ross may think it is unimportant to have saved 300 jobs on a shipyard. I actually think these things matter. And that is why we will now focus on making sure that that yard has a positive future.”

Mr Mackay quit the cabinet in February 2020 after the Scottish Sun revealed he contacted a boy over social media without knowing his age, then sent him 270 messages in six months.

He called him “cute”, invited him to dinner, and asked for their conversations to stay secret.

Opposition parties called it “predatory” and a textbook example of “grooming”.

Mr Mackay apologised “unreservedly” to the boy, but he was suspended by the SNP and a party investigation launched into his behaviour.

He left the SNP in March 2021 and the probe’s findings were never made public. 

At the time, he was seen as a potential successor to Ms Sturgeon.