Isles ferry tender process under fire as private company pulls bid

Published on Tuesday 30 January 2007 01:28

THE Executive's attempt to open up the Western Isles ferry routes to tender was in tatters last night after V.Ships, the last private sector bidder, pulled out, claiming the process was flawed.

The Scottish Executive put the Clyde and Hebrides routes out to tender as a single bundle after pressure from Europe to introduce competition. But yesterday V.Ships, the world's largest ship management firm, said it was withdrawing because the tender process was too restrictive.

It is understood the Glasgow-based firm believed it had no chance of wresting the contract from Caledonian MacBrayne, the state-run operator. V.Ships lost out to CalMac on the Northern Isles routes, and after that experience, managers at V.Ships did not believe it was worth spending up to 1 million on another tender.

CalMac is now on course to win the contract uncontested. Ministers insisted last night that the tender process would continue as planned. But the withdrawal of V.Ships, following a similar decision by Western Ferries last May, casts serious doubt over the effectiveness of the bidding process.

The Executive's problems over the issue were compounded last night when Western Ferries announced it was submitting a formal complaint to Audit Scotland over CalMac's operating practices on the

Gourock to Dunoon route following an Executive acknowledgement that CalMac had subsidised the route unfairly.