The new vessels cost quadruple their original price tag, one was delivered seven years late, the other is still being built, and both are too big to fit the main harbour for their daily journeys to and from the Isle of Arran.
But in this latest chapter of the scandal, the unbelievable is very much part of the script. And, as Sky News has been hearing, the consequences are brutal.
And to add insult to injury, both are too big for Ardrossan Harbour’s jetty to cope with and require an £80m upgrade.
Measure once, pay twice?
Everything bought for public money is immediately worse and 10x the price.
Some assholes got really rich from this and there will be no consequences.
It’s how public tenders work. That is the main problem.
You can structure tenders two different ways: You can set up a tender with both pricing as well as quality benchmarks. E.g. the company putting in an offer must proof they are experienced ship builders, have this and this certification, the offer has to have these points above the minimum standard, put it delay fines.
But that opens you up to a lot of liability:
- If one competitior gets awarded the contract the other will be claiming that the tender was fixed and he will sue.
- A new company will claim that it cannot enter the market if all public tenders require them to be experienced.
- Even with certifications above the national minimum it will be the same - why this certification and not that one? Why this standard and not this one? You can’t simply define that arbitrarily.
- Additionally rating these criteria become often a matter of personal choice. Is this offer better or this one? It’s not that easy.
- And of course you can add contractual fines for late delivery. But: Every bidder has to price them in. Because they must - their business insurance must be payed. And it can be a lot. For my business (consulting for healthcare and emergency services) I will price in 15-20% depending on the time frame.
- And if you do this: It does cost money. A serious bidder will price them all in and then the average citizen will cry about how the government is spending his hard earned taxes for something he doesn’t need “as luxurious”.
Or you can write a tender that basically says: “Yo, build two ferries according to national standards, be done by that date*, lowest price wins!” (*: TBF dates are often absolutely unrealistic and often made by political or budget promises some idiot made. I stumbled over a tender for a medical device these days… Which would be newly developed in two years. EU registration takes longer for an already developed and established product…)
Now, a serious bidder can come up with a well thought off bid and…they will loose. Because some asshole will come up with a lower priced one. Calculating with minimum wage for basically everyone, unrealistic timeframes. But they win, take the money and then it’s a sunken cost falacy. Either let all the money go down the drain (and admit you fucked up bad) or spend more money to actually get something to show for.