Transport Minister Jenny Gilroot said a new email confirmed that Derek McKay, the disgraced former SNP minister, had signed a failed contract for two new CalMac ferries.
But Audit Scotland, the public spending oversight body, said there was “insufficient documentary evidence” left to explain why the decision was made.
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The opening of the email allows the SNP to avoid questions from central ferry Derek McKay and Nicola Sturgeon, pictured before the former resigned in disgrace in 2020.
Ms Gilrut made the announcement at the start of a debate in Holyrood on Wednesday on the ferry crash, sparking outrage from opposition lawmakers who had not seen the document.
Tory MP Stephen Kerr said it was “the pinnacle of disrespect” and “borders on disrespecting parliament to treat us this way”.
Annabel Ewing, vice-president of the Scottish Parliament, later told ministers that they had not provided a copy to the MSP in advance.
This comes amid an ongoing dispute over the construction of two ferries, the Glen Sannox and the as-yet-unnamed 802 hull, which are at least £ 150 million above budget and five years late.
A recent report by Audit Scotland found that there was insufficient evidence to explain why the shipbuilding contract was awarded to Ferguson Shipyard in Port Glasgow, which has since been nationalized without a full guarantee of recovery.
Documents show that CMAL, the government’s ferry agency, was concerned about this at the time and remained concerned at the signing of the contract.
Mr McKay resigned in 2020 over messages sent to a 16-year-old boy.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was previously accused of wanting to accuse him of giving the green light to the treaty.
An email sent on 9 October 2015, written by Mr Mackay’s personal secretary and unpublished, reads: “The Minister is pleased with the proposals and would like to [them] to be resumed as soon as possible, please. “
Waving this in the hall of Holyrood, Ms. Gilruth insisted that it “destroys the ridiculous conspiracy theories of the opposition that another minister has made this decision.”
However, an email sent later on October 9 indicates that Deputy Prime Minister John Sweeney was also involved in the signing.
An official wrote: “I just finished talking to DFM. Now he understands the background and this Mr. McKay [sic] clear suggestion. So the path to rewarding is clear. ”
In a statement, Ms Gilruth said: “The e-mail makes it clear who approved the decision to award the 801 and 802 shipbuilding contract to Ferguson Shipyard.
“This shows that the decision was made correctly and correctly by the then Minister of Transport Derek Mackay.
“We said we would keep looking for the document, and that’s exactly what we did.
“This was found because a copy of an email chain was withheld by someone in the Scottish government’s finances, as the then finance secretary was informed of the decision.
“A random copy of this email chain – between two officials who left the government a few years ago – includes an email from the transport minister’s personal account and was in someone’s electronic files.
A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives on Transport, Graham Simpson, said: “We already know that approval has been given to the Ministry to award the contract to Ferguson Marine.
“We can understand this from the fact that the shipyard – very slowly and very expensively – is building the two ships.
“The missing document that we and the Scottish public are looking for is the one that tells us why the SNP awarded it to Ferguson, given that they were explicitly advised not to do so.
“Simply revealing another email in support of SNP’s desperate Operation Guilty Derek McKay will not reduce it.”
Scottish Labor spokesman Neil Bibi said the emails “raise more questions than they answer”.
He said: “It is a shame that this document was not originally provided to Audit Scotland. The question arises as to what other information is kept by them and the public.
“We still do not have a drop of information as to why this decision was made, and now these documents show that it was approved by John Sweeney.
“Now there are serious questions to the Deputy Prime Minister.
“Here we see that many ministers have agreed to continue this cunning deal, losing millions of pounds to taxpayers for a contract that experts have warned them about – but we still don’t know why.
“SNPs are in a quagmire here.
“We still need real answers for the taxpayers, the islanders and the shipyard workers, who were all so disappointed.
A spokesman for the Scottish Liberal Democratic Economy, Willie Renee, said: “It’s hard to believe that the SNP accidentally found this apparently critical document just before the ferry debate.
“The document makes things worse, as it still does not explain why the decision was made to ignore CMAL.
“The Minister of Transport’s claim that only Derek Mackay signed the contract was almost immediately undermined by another document, which reveals that it was the Deputy Prime Minister who signed the contract.
“The need for a public inquiry is now urgent.”
An Audit Scotland spokesman said: “Email confirms ministers approve FMEL award [Ferguson Marine Engineering Limited] contract.
“But there is insufficient documentary evidence to explain why the decision was made to continue the contract, given the significant risks and concerns raised by CMAL.”
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