If anyone doubts the crazy excesses of the quango culture read the Mail on Sunday’s report on Ken Boston, who has finally resigned as head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority over the SATS marking debacle.
Boston was paid more than seven times what his predecessor was. What on earth was the justification for this kind of salary jump? It beggars belief that the market rate for the head of a curriculum and exams body had jumped by that amount in five years.
The people who agreed to this deal clearly had scant regard to taxpayer value. The Mail reports that Boston is not alone in receiving a vastly better deal: more than 80 other quango heads have received large pay rises under Labour.
Boston’s contract also contained a clause promising that the QCA would ‘pay for membership of your current yachting club’ (Boston is a member of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron.) Boston’s spokesman told the paper that ‘no money has ever been paid by QCA under the provision relating to yacht club fees’. But it is still astonishing, and disgraceful, that the clause was in the contract at all.
If the Tories win the next election, they must take on this culture. For a start, they could decree that no head of a quango should be paid more than the £138,000 that a cabinet minister is paid.
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