MORE than £50million of taxpayers’ cash thrown at a struggling engineering firm has “gone forever”, it is feared.
BiFab – which had sites in Fife towns Methil and Burntisland and one on the Isle of Lewis – was rescued by the Scottish Government in 2017 after a £52million bailout.
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But the yards entered administration – costing 60 jobs – after the collapse of a £2billion wind turbine manufacturing project for the company in 2020.
Ministers are now part of legal action which aims to recoup almost £18million – of which £16.4million is owed to taxpayers – but administrators said the amount the government was likely to see is “uncertain”.
Scottish Lib Dem economy spokesman Willie Rennie said: “The £52.4 million given to BiFab looks like it’s gone forever. And what did the SNP Government get in return? Nothing. No jobs. No yards. No company.
“When I challenged the minister in parliament he shrugged his shoulders and told me that ‘you win some, you lose some.’ It’s cavalier and wasteful.
“It was the most expensive press release the SNP have ever issued.”
In 2020 when ministers poured money into the yard, the then- economy secretary Fiona Hyslop said the only other option had been nationalising the firm which ministers did not want to do.
A year later two of BiFab’s yards in Methil and in Arnish on Lewis were bought by London-based firm InfraStrata – who own Harland & Wolff shipyards.
Its Burntisland yard was shuttered before owners Forth Ports found a new tenant in mid-2021.
And in December last year, 350 jobs at the yards were saved after Harland & Wolff were bought out by Navantia UK.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government will continue to work with the administrators to obtain the maximum possible recovery of public funds.”
