FERGUS EWING: Government needs to stop patting itself on back and get on with dualling A9 much faster
Inverness and Nairn MSP and A9 road safety campaigner Fergus Ewing has given his reaction to yesterday’s announcement on the timeline for dualling the road between Tomatin and Moy, and he has not held back.
Related article:
New dual carriageway due to open between Tomatin and Moy in spring 2028
I have confidence that the contractors Balfour Beatty will do a professional job. This is a small step forward but it follows several much larger steps backward.
This work should have gone to procurement in 2021, three years ago. Had that happened, it would be due for completion in 2025, not 2028.
So this work - though welcome - is three years too late. Not one word of apology, or even recognition has been uttered for this in the Scottish Government’s self congratulatory press output.
The main reason this did not happen -three years ago when it should - was that Transport Scotland utterly botched the initial procurement; so much so that they got only one bid in their first tender process.
The whole point of tender is to get competitive bids. This was a burach of the first order.
We know now over a year later that the sole bid then was for £170 million which was at that time deemed too high by the Scottish Government.
The bill to the taxpayer of Transport Scotland’s failure may be up to around £35 million. I will refer this matter to the Auditor General to consider as an example of malpractice.
I know this because John Swinney himself told me so at a meeting. He refused at that time to reveal that figure of the bid and it was only recently released following a freedom of information request.
The ‘guide’ price was £115 million. So why was the only bid £170m? It was because the whole risks of extra costs were passed to the contractor not the Government.
Risks such as delays through weather, failure by utilities to do their work on time - and unforeseen ground works and complications - all these risks were passed to the contractor.
No wonder then that the sole bidder had to ‘up’ its price to include a massive contingency against those risks.
Meanwhile, for some years before in England, these risks would have been shared between Government and contractor.
Only after the Holyrood Petitions Committee heard devastatingly effective evidence from the representative of the civil engineering sector did Transport Scotland relent and belatedly change their T&Cs.
They were forced and embarrassed into it by the democratic scrutiny process. But that should not have been necessary had the Government not been, as it were, asleep at the wheel .
Now the work will cost £185 million - £15 million more than the cost bid a year ago which was then said to be too high.
Actually, given the new contract now shares the risks the extra costs unlike the previous tender process, the real extra costs to the taxpayer are actually far far more than £15 million - perhaps £10 million or £20 million more.
The bill to the taxpayer of Transport Scotland’s failure may be up to around £35 million. I will refer this matter to the Auditor General to consider as an example of malpractice.
My job is to report the facts to ensure they are not glossed over to try and con the public.
The lack of candour by the Scottish Government then - and now - continues to alienate the trust and confidence of people in the Highlands.
Governments that do not tell the truth become oppositions.
So I am working to persuade the Scottish Government to accelerate the programme for the rest of the road.
I am working with all other main parties to do so. Standing alone, the Green Party oppose dualling and are prepared to see the tragic death toll, resultant from lack of dual carriageway, continue. Shame on them.
The new overall A9 plan is to complete the dualling but not for 10 years - by 2035.
The Scottish Government and Transport Scotland cooked their plan up entirely by themselves. They failed to consult anyone on the 2035 deadline.
The work to dual the whole road can and must be done more swiftly. Senior civil engineers and banks have told me so.
Ultimately though, this is not about just money: this is a matter of life and death.
Inverness Courier readers know - and know only too very well - what loss of life has meant - something beyond price.
It’s our turn for the Highlands to have major investment from the devolved parliament and it is my job to press for it and not be a party political patsy.
