ONE of Scotland’s most senior civil servants is under pressure to resign over new evidence which suggests he interfered with the Holyrood design competition to promote Enric Miralles, the eventual winner.

Lord Fraser’s inquiry into the spiralling cost of the £400m building will hear next week how John Gibbons, the government’s chief architect and a member of the judging panel, ordered Miralles’s bid to be reinstated after it failed to make a short list of entries.

Bill Armstrong, the first Holyrood project manager who resigned in protest at the way it was being handled, will reveal that he was telephoned by Gibbons and told that Miralles must remain in the running.

Armstrong had discounted Miralles, a Catalan architect, because he believed his company did not meet crucial requirements such as insurance cover, staff and experience.

The inquiry has already heard how Donald Dewar, then Scottish secretary, was prepared to break strict European tendering rules to ensure that Miralles was appointed.

Fergus Ewing, vice-convener of the Scottish parliament’s finance committee, said that if Armstrong’s allegations were substantiated, Gibbons should resign as architectural adviser to the Scottish parliament’s corporate body and that other short-listed firms, which lost out, should be compensated.

Gibbons, who gave evidence to the inquiry last week but failed to mention the phone call to Armstrong, should be recalled, said Ewing.

“This is a devastating revelation. Why would Armstrong be told to put Miralles back on the list unless it was because those who told him to do so had determined that he was to be awarded the contract?” he said. “This was all before the panel met to carry out their job of selecting a designer. It suggests that the procedure of sifting the list by the panel was a sham.

“These allegations are so serious that, if they are found to be true, whether Gibbons should continue as architectural adviser would have to be looked at very carefully indeed.”

Armstrong will tell the inquiry that he was told by Gibbons, his former boss, to short list 20 of the original 70 competition entries. He examined each bid and awarded points on the basis of a set of criteria.

Miralles failed to make the cut.

“My list was given to Dr Gibbons and, once he had a look at it and spoke to a few others, I was asked to put Miralles’s name on the list. I was asked to put his name back on by Dr Gibbons,” said Armstrong.

Gibbons had been a visiting professor at the Mackintosh school of architecture at Glasgow university. The former head of the school, Professor Andy MacMillan, was another member of the judging panel which chose Miralles. MacMillan knew Miralles from his occasional lessons at the university. Both Gibbons and MacMillan visited Miralles at his home in Barcelona before he was chosen as the eventual winner.

Armstrong will reveal that during his conversation with Gibbons in March 1998, MacMillan’s name was also raised.

“He (Gibbons) said that Prof MacMillan was surprised to find that Miralles name was not on the list. I was just told to put it on and that was that,” he said.

In the end Armstrong’s short list was rejected completely by Gibbons, who considered his selection criteria “too complex” and all 70 entries were put before the judging panel.

Ewing said: “If it is the case that two out of the six judges, Gibbons and MacMillan, ordered or even invited Armstrong to reinstate Miralles, then it casts the most serious doubt on the evidence which they have given to the inquiry. Neither of them has revealed this in their evidence. They must now be recalled to answer Mr Armstrong’s claims.”

Earlier this month, The Sunday Times revealed Gibbons had been instrumental in appointing his friend Brian Stewart, chief executive of the architectural firm RMJM which, with Miralles, drew up the plans for the parliament.

Last night, Gibbons denied that he had shown any preference for Miralles, adding: “I have no recollection of telling Bill to put Miralles’s name back on the list or referring to Professor MacMillan. It’s not the kind of thing I would say.”

MacMillan denied he had exerted any influence on Armstrong’s short list.

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