Legal action over Holyrood contract

Thursday, 23 December 2004 12:00 AM

Building firm McAlpine, one of the contractors that failed to win the contract to build the Scottish Parliament, is to take legal action against the decision.

It claims that the tendering process breached European procurement procedures and says it has been left with no alternative but to sue as there has been no "meaningful response" from the Executive.

The Scottish Parliament Corporate Body (SPCB) has said it will vigorously defend such an action. It points out that the £4.31 million claimed by McAlpine would have to come from the public first and so "the case will be vigorously contested at the best defence of the public purse."

The revelation of further potential costs to the Holyrood project - which was finished three years late at a cost of £431 million - has outraged opposition leaders in Scotland.

SNP spokesman Fergus Ewing has called on Westminster to bear any costs of legal action.

He said: "With power comes responsibility. The power over the contract for the Holyrood Project was firmly in the hands of the old Scottish Office under full Westminster control when it was signed in early 1999. The Labour Government at Westminster should now take responsibility for its actions and agree immediately to bear the full financial burdens of any such legal action."

Mr Ewing added: "This legal action is the inevitable consequence of the failures of the Scottish Office prior to 1999. As the Fraser Report said 'if one tenderer was effectively permitted to change a very material aspect of the financial basis upon which its tender was submitted that is an opportunity which should have been afforded to the others'.

"While we should not prejudge the outcome of this action as the matter is now subject to the legal process, it's clear that any future costs associated with the flawed contract process should be paid by those who made the deals. In this case it's clear that the crucial decisions were made prior to the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, and so the Parliament should not have to fork out for someone else's mistakes."

The Scottish Conservative leader David McLetchie was equally scathing, saying: "This is a direct consequence of the inept political decisions in 1997 and 1998 by Donald Dewar and his Scottish Office team. They chose the site, they chose the architect, they chose the construction method and they awarded the contract, all before a single MSP had been elected. They are to blame.

"It was their desire to rush ahead regardless of cost that created the chaos and confusion which has cost the taxpayers dear, and might yet cost them millions more."

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