Post by Teddy Bear on Jan 15, 2007 0:36:35 GMT
If anybody can't yet see the absolute necessity for the BBC to actually have to earn its way, rather than just getting money to squander under any pretext it claims, read on.
Do you really think the BBC gives value for money?
'Hard up' BBC blows £33m on expenses
14/01/07
By Ted Jeory
THE BBC splashed out £33million on hotels and air fares last year – as executives were battling to increase the TV licence fee.
The gravy train, revealed by the Sunday Express today, will infuriate lowly-paid programme makers as they face yet another round of savage job cuts.
Documents obtained by us pull back the curtain on the enviable lifestyle of TV superstars, paid for by the hard-earned cash of licence fee payers. Even the corporation admitted the costs were “high” and promised to rein in the big spenders. Throughout last year the senior managers tried to persuade Gordon Brown and Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell to allow an inflation-busting hike in the licence fee.
But this week the Government is expected to disappoint them by announcing a settlement for 2007 in the region of £135 – an increase of about three per cent.
Figures we have obtained through a Freedom of Information request show that between December 2005 and November 2006:
- £18million was spent by the BBC on hotel bills.
- £15million went on air flights around the world.
- About £1million went on travel and hotel expenses for the corporation’s World Cup team, headed by Gary Lineker and Alan Hansen.
Former chairman Michael Grade (pictured), his fellow governors and the rest of his small team of top executives racked up £25,000 a month on global jamborees.
The figures also suggest that members of the BBC’s strategy unit did much of their “blue sky thinking” in the air, with their travel claims soaring to more than £150,000.
The £33.2million grand total is slightly down on the £35.5million the BBC blew in 2005 – a figure we revealed a year ago – but it still works out at £90,000 a day and about £1.50 out of every licence fee.
The BBC recently admitted spending £15million on cab fares and a further £5million on management consultants.
Last month Director General Mark Thompson warned of “difficult choices ahead” because the corporation has failed to win a big increase in the licence fee.
And last night a spokeswoman admitted the spending we have revealed is “high” – but she said our investigation might help to focus minds within the higher echelons of the corporation.
Shadow Culture Secretary Hugo Swire said: “The BBC will have no option but to tighten its belt. But what would not be acceptable is for the quality of programming to be affected.” The biggest spenders last year were the news and sports departments, which together claimed £8.9million, or about £740,000 a month.
A major part of that was the coverage of the World Cup in Germany. The BBC sent out 160 staff from radio, TV and the internet to report on England’s dismal failure.
One reporter was sent around the world, covering the reaction of fans in the countries of each of England’s opponents. His jet-setting trip contributed to the £1.5million travel bill submitted by sports staff between April and the end of the tournament in July.
The “factual and learning” department, which makes documentaries like Sir David Attenborough’s Planet Earth, spent £6.9million on travel.
The Beeb’s “nations and the regions” department claimed an astonishing £6.3million on mainly domestic flights and hotels.
Corporation accountants, who spent much of their time calculating looming redundancy packages for thousands of colleagues, actually managed to increase their claims, which rocketed 37 per cent to £753,000, or about £2,000 a day.
Their cuts programme is likely to take effect over the next two or three years. Last night John Beyer, of viewers’ organisation Mediawatch UK, said the new BBC Trust, which has replaced the board of governors, has a duty to get to grips with such “excessive expenditure”.
He said: “I really hope the trust, which has a duty to represent licence fee payers under the Royal Charter, will ask questions about how this money is being spent.”
A spokeswoman for the BBC said policy for staff was to use budget airlines wherever possible and check into standard single rooms.
She added: “We are working on making more use of video conferencing for meetings rather than travel.”
Do you really think the BBC gives value for money?