Tavish Scott: An auditor general must be impartial

Audit Scotland is scrupulously fair to governments of all persuasions and shines a bright light on Scotland’s enormous and all-pervading quangoland – a landscape very much in need of extremely bright lights. Mr Black reports to parliament’s public audit committee, which is chaired by an MSP from one of the non-government parties. Over the past five years this has been Paisley MSP Hugh Henry, who won a national award for the cross-party work he led. In a parliament with a majority government, checks and balances are few and far between. Audit Scotland is one of these, which is why Mr Black’s impending retirement creates a unique challenge. A successor is to be appointed later this year. Mr Black was appointed under a coalition government, but by parliament. He was the standout, respected and utterly impartial candidate whose very demeanour suggested the highest standards of probity. Now a Nationalist-dominated parliament will appoint a new auditor general. The interview panel will be chaired by the parliament’s Presiding Officer, who is a Nationalist. The only person who has any say and is not a Nationalist is the new convener of the public audit committee – the former Labour leader Iain Gray. This is a big test for the Nationalists. Will they seek to impose a favoured candidate who causes no trouble whatsoever before the autumn referendum in 2014? No nasty reports. No searching examinations of Scottish Government spending. No smoking gun in a quango operating not as an arm of government but part of the campaign for independence. It is one thing to appoint a party sympathiser to a quango job. All governments have done that and no doubt will continue to do so. But this position – the guardian of the nation’s books – needs to be above political interference. Common sense should prevail in St Andrew’s House. A new auditor general should be appointed by parliament on merit to be very annoying to whoever is in Bute House now and in the future. It won’t be a Nationalist government forever. I recall Labour and Lib Dem MSPs congratulating each other that they could rule for a long time after the 2003 election. The electorate saw to that. People get tired and fed up with the government of the day and elect someone else. So today’s first minister is tomorrow’s commentator on Sky News. But Scotland must have, as we currently do, a politically impartial auditor general. That is in the best interests of parliament, government and Scotland. Let us hope that sensible Nationalists see it that way too. • Tavish Scott is Liberal Democrat MSP for Shetland