An initial report into the body responsible for Scotland's exam results fiasco has uncovered a damning catalogue of failure and incompetence across the organisation.
The report by the interim chief executive of the Scottish qualifications authority found that some SQA staff were not trained and there were allegations of bullying.
The SQA was responsible for collating and distributing results for the 147,000 pupils who took exams in Scotland this year. But thousands of youngsters were sent incomplete or inaccurate grades and the validity of all results for the class of 2000 has been thrown into doubt.
In written evidence to an inquiry set up by the Scottish parliament's education committee, Bill Morton, who was appointed as acting SQA chief executive after the scandal broke, said management of the authority was poor. There was little accountability or communication, some staff had not been properly trained , others did not know how to respond to customer needs, and there was evidence of concern about bullying.
He said his internal inquiry into the problems also found poor administration of marking - although the quality assurance of the marking was said to be "robust" - and inadequate planning, preparation and project management.
There was, said Mr Morton, little evidence of checks to prevent errors and omissions, with ad hoc solutions being attempted as successive problems appeared, and there was a clear lack of communication within the body.
Mr Morton said staff concerns about difficulties were not acted upon effectively or on time and he found evidence of a fear of bullying among workers.
He told MSPs that he had been forced to make key changes because of the seriousness and scale of the problem, and further fundamental changes were in the pipeline.
The Scottish National party's education spokesman, Mike Russell, said the report put further pressure on the Scottish exective and the education minister, Sam Galbraith, to explain their role in the fiasco.
Mr Galbraith has insisted that he was not aware of the extent of problems in the SQA despite repeated requests for information.
"Mr Morton has found an organsation in deep trouble and it is unlikely that this situation arose overnight," he said. "Why was an organisation that was supposed to be the gold standard for Scottish education allowed to get into such a state?
"Was the education minister informed? And if he didn't know, why not?
Earlier this week, the enterprise minister, Henry McLeish, told the education committee inquiry that Mr Morton was conducting a rigorous investigation.
Mr Galbraith, meanwhile, has also acknowledged this week that there was a possibility that the entire board of the SQA might not be in place by the end of the year.
The authority's original chief executive, Ron Tuck, resigned his post within days of the crisis breaking.
Mr Morton's investigation is one of three different probes into the cause of the exam chaos. As well as the education committee inquiry, an independent inquiry has been commissioned by the Scottish executive.
