Civil servant: I wasn't to blame over West Coast bid Kate Mingay, the director of Commercial and Technical services at the DfT who was suspended on Wednesday, issued a statement via her lawyers insisting that she was not responsible for the "completely unacceptable" flaws that derailed the process. Sources close to Ms Mingay, a Cambridge graduate and former Goldman Sachs banker, said she had sat on a committee that looked at the tender process and had corporate finance teams reporting into her but was not the most senior civil servant involved. "My role has been inaccurately portrayed mainly due to statements and other comment made by the Department for Transport itself," Ms Mingay said in the statement. She added: "I did not have lead responsibility for this project; neither I nor any member of my team had any responsibility for the economic modelling for this project ... Nor did I have any responsibility for the financial modelling in respect of this project; I have not been involved in briefing Department for Transport ministers or other government ministers in respect of this project. WS Atkins, the engineering company that advised the Government on the tender process, also released a statement distancing itself from any blame for the faulty process that led to FirstGroup being awarded the franchise. Atkins said it had provided "technical support" for the reletting of the contract, but had not undertaken an audit role. "We do not believe there are any issues concerning the quality of the advice that we provided," the company said.