FERGUSON MARINE is being “sabotaged” by delays in awarding new ferry contracts, GMB Scotland charged today.

The union issued the stark warning as a report on the yard by the Scottish Parliament’s public audit committee, published in July, was debated at Holyrood.

Saying that the committee was “alarmed” by Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes’s admission that just £570,000 of the £14.2 million in capital investment pledged for the yard had been spent, convenor Richard Leonard told MSPs: “The yard simply cannot modernise on the basis of a perpetually pending plan.

“This is a state-owned yard. There is no shortage of shipbuilding orders out there, no shortage of potential work.

“So this cross-party parliamentary public audit committee is unanimously calling on this government to act decisively, because if it does, this yard, which has a distinctive and proud history, can have a distinctive, proud and positive future.”

Welcoming the report and warning that he yard was being “sabotaged” by inaction, GMB Scotland secretary Louise Gilmour said: “We have heard only excuses and seen no action at all.

“From [First Minister] John Swinney down, ministers have taken turns to wring their hands and tell us how complicated it is. 

“Scotland has a publicly owned shipyard which successfully built small ferries for generations and a publicly owned ferry company that urgently needs them. 

“It is not that complicated. If the Scottish government has a plan for Ferguson Marine, it is beyond time to reveal it. If it has not, why not?”

Responding in Parliament, Ms Forbes said:  “Any public contract award must fully comply with procurement and subsidy control rules or it means it will be the worst of both worlds — no work for Ferguson Marine and ships not being built.”