CITIZENS Advice Scotland could shut down unless its leading members vote for a package of governance reforms.
Senior figures at CAS have been warned that Government funding will be withdrawn if they vote against the emergency plan next month. Labour MSP Jackie Baillie said: “This is D-day.”
CAS is the umbrella body for the 61 member bureaux that provide services to over 300,000 people on consumer, finance and welfare services.
CAS is also dependent on public money: the UK Government provided around £3.4m last year; and the Scottish Government made £2.6m available in 2014/15.
However, the charity has been in crisis for over twelve months. As revealed by the Sunday Herald, CAS chief executive Margaret Lynch was fired over issues relating to her expenses.
External accountants found she had made cash withdrawals from a CAS credit card, but she is taking her case to an employment tribunal.
The two Governments also had wider concerns about governance, and auditors Deloitte were brought in to conduct a review. The damning report included a series of recommendations designed to clean up CAS.
Central to the plan was taking control of the CAS board away from representatives of individual bureax and giving power to external trustees.
Under the proposals, trustees from outside CAS and an independent chair would command a majority of the votes on the board.
On 23 November, members will be asked to vote on these amendments.
However, documents leaked to the Sunday Herald reveal how serious the vote is for the future of CAS.
In a letter to members last week, acting CAS chair Agnes Robson wrote: “In the absence of a robust governance structure being implemented at CAS, there is a very real and substantial danger that funding for CAS will be withdrawn.”
A briefing that was also sent to members went further: “If the bureaux vote not to approve the amendments to the articles, the UK and Scottish governments will cease to provide funding to CAS beyond 31 March 2017.”
It added: “Without this funding, CAS will be unable to operate and services and support to bureaux will cease.”
Baillie said: "There have been questions raised for some time about the governance arrangements of CAS...It now looks like the patience of both the UK and Scottish governments has run out.
"Many people, myself included, have enormous respect for the Citizens Advice bureaux operating in our communities. They do a tremendous job. It is now time for the centre to get its act together and support the front line."
A CAS spokesman said: "In order to continue to provide funding, the UK and Scottish governments require CAS to have a robust governance structure in place which provides assurances over the use of public funds.
"A series of amendments to our governance structure are proposed, which would bring CAS into line with...recognised best practice for...charity in receipt of public funds.
"It is important that there is no detrimental impact on the CAB network and the valued service provided to clients across Scotland. CAS has provided members with a briefing pack on options going forward in order to ensure that each member CAB can make the most informed decision on how they wish to vote."
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