Balls' 'Sexed Up' Sats Cover Up

A tawdry trail of lies, deceit and cover-ups has been exposed, as the exam chief sacked for the Sats fiasco has rounded on schools secretary Balls and his side-kick minister, accusing them of misleading both parliament and the inquiry which whitewashed Balls part in the shambles.

The Orange Party had long suspected Balls of a cover-up over the Baby P scandal and the Sats cover-up, refusing to shoulder any of the blame. 

Already accused of 'running' a Number10 smear unit, the schools secretary has a knack of hiding behind the smokescreen of 'accountability and responsibility'.  Now his cover has been blown. 

The band of spinners tried to control the fall out from the summer Sats fiasco and shift the blame away from Balls. With some crafty footwork and shifty spin, the children's secretary managed to wriggle out of any responsibility.

Now in an explosive letter, Ken Boston, the sacked head of the QCA exams quango,  has rounded on Balls and his deputy Jim Knight accusing them of spin, smears and "deliberate falsehoods", saying evidence stacked up against him was "sexed up".

Ministers were let off the hook over the Sats shambles with a widely-leaked whitewash which laid the blame squarely on the shoulders of the government quangos and contractor. Nowhere did the report answer a simple question - what was Balls doing while the Sats fiasco was falling around his ears? 

As expected and highlighted by the Orange Party at the time, the Sutherland report, blamed the exam watchdog QCA and private contractor ETS Europe, under a tight remit drawn up by Balls, craftily crafted to get him off the hook. 

Now Boston has blown the cover, claiming the inquiry remit "protected the government from being brought to account for its role in the problems."

Disturbingly the former exam chief told a committee of MPs that accounts of his meetings with ministers were "false". Accusing ministers of putting a "protective fence" around themselves, he blasted ministers' version of what happened as "fiction".

In particular, he took issue with an account central to the Sutherland inquiry, where schools minister Knight had wrongly claimed Boston had been present at one meeting last June when the Sats tests were discussed - when he had not even been invited.

Significantly Boston also challenged the inquiry's finding - read out by Balls in the commons - that ministers had "usually pressed" him for answers about the Sats marking problems. "This too is fiction," he said.

Teachers, parents and children were left tearing their hair out, let down as the Sats fiasco unfurled. The least Balls should do now is to come to the house of commons to set the record straight. 

But with all the budget hype, this is a very good day to bury bad news. 

Here stands a cabinet minister once again accused of smear tactics, this time against a public official. If Balls has misled parliament then he has to come to the house, correct the record and apologise. If the allegations are borne out - he should face the music and quit. 

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Sats Whitewash Lets Balls Off Hook

Ministers have been let off the hook over the Sats shambles with a widely-leaked whitewash which laid the blame squarely on the shoulders of the government quangos and contractor. Nowhere did the report answer a simple question - what was Ed Balls doing while the Sats fiasco was falling around his ears? 

As expected and highlighted by the Orange Party here, the Sutherland report, out today, blamed the exam watchdog QCA and private contractor ETS Europe, under a tight remit drawn up by the school's secretary, Ed Balls, craftily crafted to get him off the hook. 

As Balls apologised to schools and families for "all their inconvenience, stress and frustration", questions still need to be asked over how on earth ministers could sit back and let this all happen, when teachers and markers were shouting from the rooftops that something was amiss. 

The 178 page Sutherland report is full of strong criticism of government quangos. 

The QCA watchdog "failed its remit". Pupils, parents, schools and markers were "badly let down". The impact had been "massive". There had been a culture within the QCA and its National Assessment Agency (NAA) that "it'll be all right on the night". It has not delivered and there have been "massive failures."

And the report blames ETS Europe and its "insufficient" capacity to deliver the tests with a "lack of comprehensive planning and testing" of the systems used for the tests.

Not a word about the government. Setting up government quangos and then watching them implode at arms length is irresponsible. But ministers have found a neat device to hide behind, saying they know nothing and it's all down to their own complacent quangos. 

Teachers were telling the secretary of state there were problems long before the marking stage. 

The Tories want answers: “Ken Boston has pointed out that ministers were closely involved at every stage of the process. They cannot escape their role in the fiasco by claiming, as Ed Balls has done, that they were at 'arms length' from this disaster."

The LibDems also called for ministers to accept responsibility: "Ministers themselves should also accept some blame for their complacent attitude to the delivery of the tests. It is clear that they were asleep at the wheel."

But Downing Street spinners have managed to work their warped magic and control the fall out from the summer Sats fiasco, shifting the blame away from the school's secretary. 

Most ministers are elected MPs and that makes them both accountable and responsible to parliament and the electorate. 

Political voices from both ends of the spectrum speak with one voice but in vain if they expect Brown's trusty lieutenant to hold up his hands over this latest cock-up. As with the Baby P scandal, saying sorry isn't good enough.

6pm UPDATE: Balls has said he's sorry again, telling the commons he blames ETS and QCA and, er, that's it. 

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Blame Balls For Sats Shambles

The government is trying to control the fall out from the summer Sats fiasco and shift the blame away from school's secretary, Ed Balls, who should shoulder responsibility for the shambles. 

With some crafty footwork and shifty spin, the children's secretary managed to wriggle out of any responsibility for the Baby P scandal. Now Brown's trusty lieutenant looks set to do it again.

The Sats shambles is just the latest in a whole series of government cock-ups over big IT projects awarded to their pals in the IT industry. It's costing the country billions of pounds and countless suffering to people. 

But ministers have found a neat little device to hide behind, saying they know nothing and it's all down to their own complacent quangos.

The carefully leaked outcome of the Sutherland inquiry has been quick to point the finger at US-based contractor ETS Europe and the head of the exams quango, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA).

Time and again the Orange Party has called into question the role of government ministers in this whole affair, pointing out that a government minister must have signed off the £156m five-year contract and with that responsibility comes accountability. 

That view is shared today by both the Tories and the LibDems.

Warning bells were sounded months before the government finally got round to scrapping the ETS contract and with it tests for 14 year olds. 

But the Sutherland inquiry can only examine what it was set up to examine. It was carefully framed to avoid any remit which would question why the contract was awarded in the first place to a US company with a poor track record and the government's failed testing policies.

Hundreds of thousands of pupils' test results were delayed, this year's league tables were postponed and half of the tests were scrapped.

The government must now face questions over its role in the debacle as they were repeatedly warned something was wrong. 

However much Balls and ministers try to wriggle out of it, the government used taxpayers cash to sign a multi-million-pound contract with a firm with such an appalling track record. Ministers have a duty to make sure that cash is spent wisely and efficiently.

Head teachers, teachers and markers had been warning of problems since the spring. MPs were told the tests had become a "shambles" long before the results date in July.

Balls is not the only one who should shoulder responsibility. There are other legacy ministers involved in the fiasco and the inquiry needed to examine the role of all of them, including the chairman of the QCA and head of the QCA’s testing arm, the National Assessment Agency.

But so far QCA chief, Ken Boston, is the only head to roll in this appalling affair.

Ministers must bear direct responsibility for signing up with a firm that let down children and teachers so badly. 

The sheer arrogance of a government minister, who can hide behind weak excuses while the fiasco unfolded, leaving parents and youngsters frantic with worry, is quite beyond belief.

These get-out clauses used by ministers for big IT projects are a scandal. Ministers are accountable and responsible. And if they don't like that, or they preside over a cock-up, they should quit the job.

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