Chamber and committees

You mentioned the turnaround director. Do you, as Auditor General, have a view on the contractual arrangements and terms of engagement of the turnaround director? I do not think that that is included in your report, but I wondered whether you have had a chance to reflect on it.

That might be a line of inquiry that we will pursue elsewhere. Thank you. I now invite Craig Hoy to ask a series of questions.

We have heard this morning about how people have applied to court to get settlements in disputes about payments, we have heard about mediation mechanisms being considered and then abandoned, and we are looking at a new environment in which there is a cost-plus arrangement. If you read the evidence that Jim McColl submitted to the committee, you find that a lot of it is saying that we are looking at the situation through the wrong end of the telescope, that unfair demands were placed on Ferguson Marine, and that that is why the costs and delays ended up where they did. That is all because of CMAL, which is now the technical consultant in an environment in which there is a cost-plus arrangement. In looking out for the public’s money, how do we know that that is not a blank cheque for CMAL to get the highest specification and technical corrections that will cost an inordinate amount of money on which there is no limit?

Our first evidence-taking session this morning is on Audit Scotland’s report “The 2020/21 audit of NHS Highland”. First of all, I welcome to the meeting Rhoda Grant, who is joining us online for this and the next item. I also welcome, via videolink, our three witnesses from NHS Highland. They are Pamela Dudek, who is its chief executive; Boyd Robertson, who is the chair of the board; and David Garden, who is its director of finance.

I remind everyone, including committee members, that we are very tight for time this morning, so I would appreciate short questions and short but incisive answers. To begin, I invite Pamela Dudek to make an opening statement.

With all the savings and cost improvement programmes, there is the question of what effect that work is having on the level of patient care and the services that you deliver. Is there an adverse effect in order to achieve the challenging targets that you mentioned?

Yes. Mr Garden—please come in.

Welcome back to the second half of this morning’s meeting. Agenda item 3 is our first consideration of the Audit Scotland report into arrangements for the delivery of vessels 801 and 802. I welcome to the meeting the Auditor General for Scotland, Stephen Boyle, who is joined by a team of three people from Audit Scotland: Antony Clark, interim director of performance audit and best value; Angela Canning, audit director; and Gill Miller, audit manager, performance audit and best value.

In addition, I welcome Rhoda Grant, who is an MSP for the Highlands and Islands and who is taking part in the evidence session remotely. Rhoda, if you want to come in at any point, please indicate that by typing R in the chat function and we will do our best to bring you in.

To begin, I invite the Auditor General to make an opening statement. After his statement, members will ask a series of questions. If we do not cover all the ground that we need to this morning, we might need to have a second evidence session on this report with the Auditor General.

That ends the committee’s questions. I thank Caroline Lamb and Donna Bell from the Scottish Government and Nicola Dickie, who may have dropped off—if she can hear us, I hope that she takes our thanks for her evidence—and Sarah Watters from COSLA. We will reflect on the evidence that we have taken and decide on our next steps. Thank you for your co-operation and I hope to see you again soon.

I now suspend the meeting to allow for a changeover of witnesses.

I think that other members want to come in on that point. On the point that Gill Miller made, I direct this first to the Auditor General: why is there no documentary evidence? Is it hidden, is it missing or does it simply not exist?

As we are literally out of time, I draw the evidence session to a close. I thank the Auditor General, Antony Clark, Angela Canning and Gill Miller for joining us this morning, and I invite them to return at the earliest opportunity.

I also thank them for their evidence. We have a whole load more questions that we need to ask and we need to consider what our next steps might be, but I must thank the witnesses for their openness and willingness to answer our questions this morning.

With that, we move into private session.