A 'highly critical' report into the £178m IT system set up for farm payments has created a rift between MSPs and Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing.
The report looked at the system for making European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments, where many Scottish farmers have faced severe delays in receiving the payments.
A farming leader has previously asked whether the government is "flogging a dead horse" by sticking with its IT system for delivering CAP support.
And farming union NFU Scotland said every farmer will remember 2016 as a year when the Scottish government's 'flawed IT system failed to deliver' the subsidy CAP payments, 'damaging' the rural economy.
The report, still in draft form, was not seen by Holyrood's rural economy committee. Its convener Edward Mountain said a lack of full disclosure meant questioning Mr Ewing was "limited".
'Devastating'
Liberal Democrat MSP Mike Rumbles described the report's findings as "devastating" while Conservative member Jamie Greene said it was an "absolutely damning indictment" of the IT system.
Mr Ewing informed the committee that the report found the system's architecture to be "fundamentally sound".
He added: "I accept, of course, there are matters that require to be remediated, of course there are, if there weren't we wouldn't be having the difficulties that we're having.
"But bear in mind that this report was commissioned by us from a firm of independent experts in the industry to ascertain whether or not we did require to think again with an entirely new approach.
"It was entirely independent and their fundamental conclusion is that 'yes, the system is sound but a lot of remediation work is required'."
Mr Ewing insisted he had confidence in IT contractor CGI, which was making "significant progress" on the system.
The cabinet secretary said everyone involved was working "flat out" to meet the government's commitment to complete the processing of 2016 payments by the end of June.
