By David Williams
05 June 2009
The director general of the BBC has defended his record amid criticism from MPs that the organisation is spending too much on presenters and failing to measure value for money effectively.
In an exclusive interview with Public Finance, Mark Thompson said: ‘Over the past few years we’ve lost more than 7,000 posts over the organisation. In our television area, BBC Vision, and in our journalism family we’re asking for 5% [annual] efficiencies at the moment.
‘I’ve been very aggressive inside the organisation on value for money and the efficiency agenda. There are some parts of the organisation – for example if you go to BBC local radio stations around the country – where I can’t see where we go after the present.’
But a June 4 report by the Commons Public Accounts Committee questioned whether the broadcaster’s national radio stations were as efficient as they could be.
The efficiency of radio production at the BBC found there were wide disparities in cost between similar shows, and said cost comparisons were not being made across the organisation or with the commercial sector.
MPs said the BBC appeared to be paying some presenters up to double what was available in the commercial sector, and they were not convinced such high salaries were necessary.
PF understands the BBC Trust’s stance on presenter salaries is that they are not out of line with the market, and that many are prepared to work for less than they would receive in the private sector.
The report was also highly critical of the BBC’s use of confidentiality agreements with high-earning presenters, arguing
it ‘is putting the use of public money beyond the scrutiny of the auditor general and Parliament’. But the trust argues that it has obligations to staff under the Data Protection Act.
The PAC called for the auditor general, who carried out an investigation into BBC radio in February, to have statutory rights of access to the corporation’s records.
PAC chair Edward Leigh said the findings placed ‘a big question mark over whether the BBC is achieving value for money for the licence payer’.
Mark Thompson will be speaking at the CIPFA’s annual conference in Manchester on June 25
