Arthur Andersen

I received the following this morning, quotes are indicated by a >

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[q1]>Statement for Press[/q1]
[q1]>[/q1]
[q1]>Arthur Andersen - in the light of the recent revelations about their role in regard to Enron and[/q1]
[q1]>their links with the Labour party in Britain there has been a call for an enquiry into this[/q1]
[q1]>company's operations in Britain. As a member of the National Union of Teachers Executive I have[/q1]
[q1]>been drawing attention to this company's role in encouraging privatisation in education for some[/q1]
[q1]>years. My understanding is that they gave their services free to the Labour Party for the previous[/q1]
[q1]>2 General elections. Is this correct? - if it is how ethical is it that a company which gave[/q1]
[q1]>material support in this way then appears to be contracted to work for Labour Ministers and[/q1]
[q1]>Departments? They were then (1997) invited by Geoffrey Robinson to join the Treasury taskforce[/q1]
[q1]>looking into the issue of public/private relations and in addition worked with the DfEE (as it then[/q1]
[q1]>was) on the issue. An individual from Arthur Andersen was seconded to the DfEE. Graham Walker[/q1]
[q1]>was/is an education specialist for Arthur Andersen and had a seat on Newham's Education Action[/q1]
[q1]>Zone. (He was interviewed for BBC File on Four 7/2/99) when he said, "If you loook at the state[/q1]
[q1]>education system, I think there's a general recognition that it's not providing what society wants,[/q1]
[q1]>and that many people say that there is a crisis, and I think I would agree that there is a crisis,[/q1]
[q1]>that we have to move to another level. and a lot of solutions that are relevant to the running of[/q1]
[q1]>our schools and our education system generally are actually already in existence in the private[/q1]
[q1]>sector, and the Education Action Zones are one way of really softening up and getting people ready[/q1]
[q1]>in a more sophisticated manner than they can on their own as individual schools for this new way."[/q1]
[q1]>(Punctuation from BBC transcript!) Bernard Regan, National Executive Member for Inner London (me!)[/q1]
[q1]>is calling for an investigation into the role of Arthur Andersen in the DfEE; - are they still[/q1]
[q1]>operating in the DfES? What role do they play in the Department or elsewhere in education? What[/q1]
[q1]>role have they had in respect of PFI? Outsourcing? I have written two pamphlets on the issue of the[/q1]
[q1]>privatisation of Education[/q1]
[q1]>- "Trojan Horses" (essentially highlighting the role EAZs would have in softening up Educaiton for[/q1]
[q1]> privatisation) and "Not for Sale" (which took up opposition to education privatisation as a[/q1]
[q1]> whole). I have been on the NUT Executive for more than 20 years representing teachers in Inner[/q1]
[q1]> London.[/q1]

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