Ferguson Marine shipyard boss rapped over his claims against man he sacked

The head of nationalised shipyard Ferguson Marine has been told it is "not acceptable" for him to need two months to explain why he claimed the chief executive he sacked had misled a Scottish Parliament committee.

Andrew Miller alleged to the net zero, energy and transport committee last month that David Tydeman had made statements to previous hearings that “were not exactly accurate” before he was dismissed in March.

Ferguson Marine chief executive David Tydeman was sacked in March | John Devlin/The Scotsman

However, the yard has admitted Mr Miller misled the committee himself because he had “misspoke” by wrongly claiming the search for a new chief executive had started before Mr Tydeman was ousted.

Mr Miller was given two weeks by the committee to set out the alleged inaccuracies in Mr Tydeman’s evidence at committee hearings in October 2023 and February 2024, and why he had not written to the committee to correct the record.

However, John Petticrew, Mr Tydeman’s interim successor, wrote to the committee on Thursday to say Mr Miller would respond by January 31, the day after a yard board meeting.

Committee convener Edward Mountain said on Friday he was “disappointed” at not getting answers until then.

Mr Tydeman’s departure followed an ongoing series of delays to the completion of two CalMac ferries, Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa, with the project not due to be finished until next September, more than seven years late and four times over budget.

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Mr Miller told the committee on November 26: “Mr Tydeman had lost the confidence of the board in his ability to forecast both timetabling and financially. At one of the evidence sessions, he made some statements that the board and I believed were not exactly accurate.

“Some of the statements overexcited some of our partners. Some letters of apology had to be written to those parties after the evidence was given.”

Mr Mountain said in a letter to Mr Petticrew in Mr Miller’s absence: “The chair gave the committee to understand that there had been inaccuracies in evidence given to this committee by your predecessor, and that this has been a factor in the board losing confidence in him and therefore (it is to be inferred) to his dismissal very shortly after his final evidence session with the committee in February.

“You will understand why the committee would consider it important to understand more about this, including what inaccurate matters the committee was told, as well as why the board had not written to the committee to correct any inaccuracies.

“I do not consider it acceptable that the committee should have to wait until January 31 to have the clarification it requested and I ask you and your Ferguson Marine colleagues to use what means you have at your disposal to contact the chair, so that he may provide these answers before then.”

Mr Petticrew’s letter said Mr Miller had provided inaccurate information when asked about the process to find a permanent successor to Mr Tydeman.

Mr Miller had said it had started a year ago - five months before Mr Tydeman was sacked in March. But Mr Mountain said the yard’s board minutes from March stated that external recruitment had not yet started then.

Mr Petticrew wrote: “During the November 26 committee meeting, Andrew Miller misspoke in stating the search for the new chief executive started 12 months prior. The process to remove David Tydeman as chief executive began in Q1 2024, which was seven months prior as opposed to 12.

“The search for a permanent chief executive began in April with the appointment of Odgers Berndtson, a UK-based executive search and recruitment firm.”