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26 Sep 2012
The tendering process for new Clyde and Hebrides ferry services has been branded an “expensive sham” by the Scottish Conservatives.
Transport Scotland announced today that a single contract for the routes would go out to tender in the autumn of 2014.
Due to the size of the single deal, this means smaller organisations across Scotland stand little chance of competing for it.
Scottish Conservative transport spokesman Alex Johnstone MSP said:
“The SNP has once again failed in its duty to deliver the open and accessible bidding process which would have allowed the provision of value for money for both the taxpayer and the passengers served by the Clyde and Hebrides ferries.
“This government has been dragging its feet over this contract for years, kicking it into the long grass time and again with a series of consultations.
“The device of a three-year interim contract for the existing provider is a clear confession that it has been painfully incompetent in its handling of this tendering process to date.
“The failure to offer this contract in a form which could attract bids from Scotland’s highly successful and efficient smaller ferry operators means that only outside bidders can now possibly compete with CalMac, rendering the process an expensive sham at the outset.
“The failure to at least partially unbundle these contracts means that the outcome has little hope of being anything other than a government stitch-up from the start.”
For more information on the announcement visit:
www.transportscotland.gov.uk/news/Single-Clyde-and-Hebrides-ferry-contract
