Severance payments to BBC senior managers caused “shock and dismay” at the trust that oversees the state media giant according to its chairperson Chris Patten, giving evidence to MPs on the public accounts committee.
The BBC, which which supports monarchy, paid £25m in severance to 250 managers in the three years to December 2012. In twenty five per cent of cases the managers received more than their contractual entitlement. A former director-general received £949,000 more than his contract stipulated.
Patten claimed that his trust had not been told about the excess payments. Another trust member, Anthony Fry, told the committee “There were times when people like me, not to put too finer point on it, were told to get back in our box because these weren’t areas that concerned the BBC Trust”.
One member of the committee alleged that there was “cronyism” at the BBC.
The BBC director-general at the time of the payments, Mark Thompson, is expected to give evidence later. Mr. Thompson, who famously claimed that the Corporation was “the greatest force for cultural good on the face of the earth”, now works for the New York Times. His new employer does not charge those who do not want to use its services.
The BBC Trust is claimed by supporters of the BBC to protect the interests of the people who pay the easily evaded licence fee that the law requires before any form of television may be viewed in the UK.