Greene warns investment needed after litany of failures at Ferguson marine

Scottish Liberal Democrat economy spokesperson Jamie Greene has today warned that the Scottish Government must develop a clear plan of action for Ferguson Marine as a damning new parliamentary report highlighted a series of failures at the shipyard in Port Glasgow.

The Scottish Parliament’s Public Audit committee’s report into its consideration of the Auditor General’s 2023/24 audit of Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Holdings Limited, published on Friday 4th July, warns that urgent investment is needed to secure the yard for the future and highlights a series of repeated failings, including leadership and board instability, inadequate internal audit, serious weakness in contractor oversight and governance failures around exit packages for senior staff.

Responding to the report, Jamie Greene, who is also Public Audit Committee deputy convenor, said:

“This damning cross-party report catalogues a litany of failures of government, its agencies and those at the top of this whole sorry mess.

“The Scottish Government has done incalculable damage to the yard’s reputation since it forced its nationalisation. I really feel for workers who have been through the mill.

“Put simply, there will be no Ferguson Marine in the future unless the SNP government urgently comes up with the goods in terms of investment and a pipeline of new work.

“A revolving door of well-paid executives have done little to turn around the yard’s fortunes and all the while the SNP are handing contracts to Poland and Turkey rather than bolstering Clyde shipbuilding.

“Despite half a dozen transport ministers and a half-a-billion-pound saga for taxpayers, still no heads have rolled in the Scottish Government. When is John Swinney going to set out who he thinks is culpable for this mess?"