BBC pay deals to be probed by Government spending watchdog
By PAUL REVOIR
Last updated at 22:00 30 November 2006
The controversial £18 million pay deal for Jonathan Ross and those of other highly paid BBC entertainers are set to be probed by the government's spending watchdog.
The National Audit Office is being lined up to review whether the salaries of the corporation's top presenters, such as Ross and Terry Wogan, represent "value for money" for the licence fee paying public.
There has been anger at the way the BBC has been dipping into its funds to hand out massive deals to top stars. Even people within the corporation have branded pay packages like Ross' as "obscene".
Aside from Ross's three-year deal, Little Britain stars Matt Lucas and David Walliams recently signed a £6m "golden handcuffs" agreement and Graham Norton was also given a lucrative deal earlier this year.
Politicians have questioned whether the BBC can justify its request for an above inflation increase in the licence fee when it is letting presenters pocket such huge salaries from its coffers.
It has also been accused of being so well funded that it can outbid commercial rivals such as ITV in attracting the top talent.
Any detailed information on the stars' salaries is unlikely to be made public. It will instead be handed to the BBC's governors who will then publish a general report on the issue.
BBC director general Mark Thompson has bowed to political pressure and gave his approval for auditors to go and look at the issue.
But it will ultimately be up to the BBC board of governors, which becomes the BBC Trust in January, to give final sign-off for the review.
Thompson's agreement, which came at a public accounts committee meeting at parliament, followed criticism by politicans that the BBC was accepting a "disraceful anomaly" which leaves it as the only taxpayer funded body exempt from full scrutiny of its accounts from parliament.
Thompson justifed the bumper salaries saying: "We have a system that monitors the cost per minute per viewer of every programme."
"This shows that even with a highly paid presenter the cost can be less than, say, the cost of a costume drama or a new-wave drama, which is very expensive to produce."
The BBC refuses to make public the salary details of its top perfomers claiming it would act as a massive disincentive for any top talent joining the broadcaster.
A source said: "No broadcaster would publish that details of the salaries of presenters - it is a sure way of losing them to our competitors.
"Time and time viewers tell us they want the best talent on the BBC. That does not necessairly mean the cheapest."
The BBC has agreed to allow selected investigations in the corporations finances providing they do not put in jeopardy the broadcaster's editorial independence.
But there has been some concerns that the BBC has been choosing areas to be investigated which portray it in the best light.
A BBC spokesperson said: "Under the new Charter and Agreement the Trust sets the programme for value for money reviews, working closely with the NAO.
"This process is already underway for the next Charter period and the Trust and the NAO will take into account the proposal made by the PAC, to which the DG raised no objections in principle. Once the programme is agreed it will be published."
News presenter Jeremy Paxman is also one of the BBC's highest earners with an annual salary of almost £1million, while Radio 2 presenter Sir Terry Wogan gets £800,000 per year.
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