A number of years ago, when Common Weal started raising concerns about poor governance in the Scottish public sector, this was viewed as a 'non-standard' position. The general view from political insiders was that, whatever Scotland's problems, it was well governed.
Well yesterday alone there were three substantial interventions which make criticism of governance in Scotland now look mainstream. First, the Scottish Government announced the next steps in the long-running crisis of failed governance at Historic Environment Scotland.
Then came Conservative MSP Stephen Kerr claiming that there was something rotten in the culture of the public service with extensive bullying at Crown Estates Scotland being the latest in a substantial list of institutions where there have been claims of significant bullying or other forms of poor management.
And then historian Tom Devine, one of Scotland's most respected academics, accused the leaders of Edinburgh University of maladministration in their pursuit of a unilateral reshaping of the university which is turning it upside down with little or no democratic scrutiny.
What is important is that no-one is claiming that these allegations of poor governance are incorrect or unreasonable. Everyone up to Audit Scotland accepts that the situation at Historic Environment Scotland was shocking and unacceptable. That the senior management team appeared to be falling apart but nothing was done by a dysfunctional Board is not contested.
The Crown Estates bullying allegations have not been denied and are extensively documented. It is not like this is the first instance of allegations of widespread bullying in a public body in Scotland – from NHS Highlands to the Scottish Parliament itself, we see a lot of allegations of systemic bullying.
But if the first case is negligence and the second is an aggressive management culture, the third is simple rule-breaking. The leadership of Edinburgh University is openly flouting the constitutional rules of the organisation, for example in refusing to allow academics places on oversight bodies they have a constitutional right to.
What is important here is that the factors which are causing this in each instance are broadly the same – lack of oversight, political signalling that perpetrators will be protected and an entitled expectation on the part of leaders that they will not be held to account.
In the case of Historic Environment Scotland, over the four years the service was in crisis, the government minister responsible did not meet the Board on a single occasion. The quango was free to go rogue without politicians giving the impression of caring never mind showing any intent to do anything about it.
In the second, the first step of the First Minister was to close down any possibility of an inquiry to prevent further information coming to light. Scrutiny will now be solely the responsibility of a body of people whose lack of scrutiny was a contributing factor in the first place.
In the third, the body is openly admitting that its leaders drove it into crisis and that to deal with the crisis they will simply break constitutional rules that are there to ensure the accountability that failed in the first place.
There is an endemic culture problem in Scotland's quangos because they are ungoverned realms with vast budgets and sweeping powers which are exercised by a tiny ruling class which has next to no democratic legitimacy, are all-but unaccountable most of the time and know they will be protected and parachuted out or promoted up if anything goes wrong.
And above all, they are steeped in the technocratic New Public Management ethos which states that they are the service and the frontline workers who deliver the service are actually the barrier to them delivering a better service. This is based on a notion that they are 'scientifically' better at running institutions because they have been steeped in the management techniques of NPM. That is why the university leaders claim they cannot obey the constitution because the decisions are just ‘too complicated’ for mere academics.
That is what broke these institutions, that is what is breaking them further in an attempt to save them. Until there are real, personal consequences for governors this will keep happening. The culture of failing upwards must come to an end.