A senior member of the Scottish Cabinet has defended the decision not to make the public aware of the spiralling cost of the V&A Dundee.
Fiona Hyslop, Culture, Europe and External Affairs Secretary, said doing so would have broken strict commercial confidentiality.
Her comments came in a letter to The Courier in response to Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael’s suggestion that “heads should be rolling” over the affair.
The SNP administration on Dundee City Council first told the Scottish Government costs had rocketed last April eight months before it became public.
Ms Hyslop said: “Alistair Carmichael does himself a great disservice in his attempts to score political points with attacks on the V&A project.
“The V&A is, of course, not Scottish Government-led.
“It was first brought to the Scottish Government in 2008 by the five project partners.
“The Scottish Government, like the Heritage Lottery Fund, is a supportive funder of the project rather than partner.
“The economic benefits of the project are significant, supporting hundreds of jobs both during and after its construction and when completed, it will bring an estimated £11.6 million a year boost to the economy.
“The Scottish Government has long been a strong supporter of the V&A Dundee, committing £15 million in the early days of the project towards the construction project and providing revenue funding to help support staffing, marketing and fundraising and the development of the exhibitions.
“By contrast, the UK Government has provided only a very small amount of financial support and the Heritage Lottery Fund is, of course, legally independent of the UK Government.
“In April 2014 the Scottish Government was informed, within the bounds of commercial confidentiality, that the initial estimate for the V&A Dundee project would not be met but that the council was entering negotiation on a fixed price contract. These negotiations took several months.
“Disclosure of information during those sensitive negotiations would have prejudiced substantially the ability of Dundee City Council to get the best possible deal for the city something that does not seem to have occurred to Mr Carmichael.”
She said the Scottish Government was informed of the revised £80.11 million contract cost on December 18.
Dundee City Council has since announced that it will launch a full, independent review of the project, led by John McLelland.