The current board of Citizen's Advice Scotland (CAS)are not equipped to make changes needed to reform it and should quit, according to a leading politician.
Jackie Baillie MSP, Scottish Labour's economy spokesperson, was speaking after an independent review made 32 recommendations for change at the troubled charity, including inviting more external trustees to join its board.
The report by Deloitte said a new independent chair should be appointed and 50 per cent of the board should be elected from outside the Citizen's Advice Bureaux network. Currently the figure is 20 per cent.
Read more: Former chief of Citizens Advice Scotland denies claims it was run by 'Glasgow Mafia'
Ms Baillie said: "Whilst the report into governance arrangements in CAS is welcome, this is nothing new. It seems that each time a Chief Executive leaves or is shown the door, a governance review is commissioned.
"The report is a devastating critique of a dysfunctional organisation with a culture of bullying by members of the Board of the senior management team. It is no wonder that they have had 6 Chief Executives in the last 7 years."
CAS claims it has only appointed four chief executives since 2009, although two members of staff have had to step up to fill the role on a temporary basis in that period.
Ms Baillie called on ministers in both the Scottish and UK Governments to "get a grip" of the problems at CAS so that the good work of local bureaux can continue to be supported.
"That needs to start with all of the Board being replaced now. You cannot begin to implement the culture changes if the existing board survives intact until 2017. Some may be good people, of that I have no doubt, but they collectively presided over a dysfunctional organisation and by leaving they give CAS the opportunity for a fresh start."
Read more: Former chief of Citizens Advice Scotland denies claims it was run by 'Glasgow Mafia'
Citizens Advice Scotland needs to change its rules to enable an independent chair and change the number of external candidates eligible to be on the board. It has pledged to do this later this year, after consulting with members over the details.
A spokeswoman for CAS said: “While the Deloitte report was critical of the board, there is no suggestion that the board should resign. It clearly states that the board should set up a transition committee to take forward the immediate recommendations. This is in the best interests of the stability of the organisation, and to ensure that there is accountability during this period of change."
Read more: Former chief of Citizens Advice Scotland denies claims it was run by 'Glasgow Mafia'
She added that the board was committed to delivering the recommendations in the Deloitte report, and said: “The CAS board has published the full report publicly, along with their acceptance of the recommendations, as a public commitment to transparency, accountability and delivering the required changes. The U.K. and Scottish governments have reviewed the report and the CAS board's response and are satisfied with the significant progress made to date, and released funding for the rest of the financial year.
“The transition committee has already been established and is working on delivering a series of meetings with the membership in the next few weeks.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel