The AN SNP cabinet secretary, asked to sign the disastrous deal to buy two CalMac ferries, has repeatedly refused to say whether he has done so.
Keith Brown, a Royal Marine commando in the Falklands War, tried to escape a media ambush in Holyrood by fleeing to the canteen queue.
The justice minister declined to discuss his own role in the episode, citing only the first minister’s previous statements.
This was followed by Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, who repeatedly questioned Nicolas Sturgeon at FMQ about a key missing document related to the late 2015 deal.
Although warned of the financial risks of continuing standard reimbursement guarantees, SNP ministers moved forward.
However, the document that was supposed to record this decision and the justification behind it is missing, which makes government auditors express their disappointment with the hole in the tracks of the paper.
The £ 97mn contract with Clyde’s Ferguson Marine later broke down, leading to its collapse and nationalization, leaving the boats four years late and £ 150m above budget.
Since then, Ms. Sturgeon has tried to shift responsibility to disgraced former Secretary of State Derek McKay, who has resigned over a 2020 scandal scandal.
Available documents show that on 20 August 2015, Mr Brown, then Secretary of the Cabinet for Infrastructure Investment and Cities, was asked to approve the deal while Mr Mackay, then Minister for Transport and Islands, was on leave.
His answer was not recorded in public correspondence.
On October 8, 2015, officials asked Mr. McKay to sign the deal after explaining the pitfalls, and Mr. Brown, as Mr. McKay’s boss, was the first person copied in the email.
The answer to this is not recorded in public correspondence, and the auditors believe that it was probably never created, although it should have been.
On 9 October 2015, Transport Scotland officials told Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd, the owner of a public sector ferry, that “Scottish ministers” had collectively approved the deal.
However, it is not clear from the email whether Mr Mackay is solely responsible for this or whether Mr Brown also had a hand.
After today’s FMQ, Holyrood’s press body tried to ask Mr. Brown if he had actually signed the deal.
He said: “I think you have heard the answer of the first minister.”
Asked why the decision was made, given that he is the minister in charge of governance, Mr Brown continued on his way down the main staircase to the garden lobby, past an SME photo shoot and in the dining room, where he joined the queue. .
Asked to explain the decision again, Mr Brown said: “I just answered the question”.
Asked if people thought his behavior was suspicious, he said: “You received a very clear answer from the first minister. I have nothing to add to the first minister’s answer.”
Asked if he had discussed the matter with the first minister during the decision, Mr Brown said: “You have a full answer from the first minister”.
Having said that, there was no complete answer, Mr Brown said: “Do you want me to answer the question? You had a full answer from the first minister. I have nothing to add to the comments of the first minister. ”
Asked if, like some of Ferguson’s Marines, he had a closure order, Mr Brown seemed to be smiling behind his Covid mask.
Brown later gave an interview to Channel 4 News in which he said he had “responded” to the August 2015 email, but Mr. Mackay signed the deal in October.
“This document, the one that signed it, if it ever existed, is not available now.”
I asked Keith Brown about his involvement in the controversial Ferguson Marine ferry deal in 2015, when he was @ScotGov’s infrastructure secretary. @ Channel4News pic.twitter.com/muxgX0E8Yi
– Ciaran Jenkins (@ C4Ciaran) April 28, 2022
Emphasizing the jobs reserved by the contract, he said of the missing document: “This document, the one that signed it, if it ever existed, is not available now.”
Mr Mackay’s job was to sign it, he said.
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