BBC Pay and Expenses Revealed - £20m to top 100

[Teddy Bear]

Critics hit out at the revelations branding the BBC an 'overbloated organisation' full of 'politically correct jobs' and jobs that add nothing to viewers.

Don't know about you, but when I think of what the BBC actually does, this revelation makes me feel sick, not that I didn't suspect it already.

BBC pays out £20million to top 100 'decision-making' executives
By Paul Revoir and Liz Thomas

BBC boss Mark Thompson claimed £650 for night in Las Vegas ... and claimed 70p for parking on seven separate occasions

46 of BBC's top executives earn more than Gordon Brown
Many top bosses also employ highly-paid chief advisors
Alan Yentob claimed £3,211.70 for a return flight to New York

The BBC paid an astonishing £20million to just over 100 'top decision makers' the corporation admitted today.

The lavish salaries of the BBC's army of middle managers were disclosed for first time amid growing concerns over its spending.
They included a series of advisers and strategists with titles such as 'organisational development and change director' on lucrative pay packages.
Others included a £130,000 a year 'outreach' boss, a business continuity official on £117,000 and a 'reward director', themselves rewarded with a £196,000 salary.
Critics hit out at the revelations branding the BBC an 'overbloated organisation' full of 'politically correct jobs' and jobs that add nothing to viewers.
Conservative MP Philip Davies, who sits on the culture media and sport select committee said:

'It illustrates probably better than anything else than we have ever seen why the BBC's funding needs to be radically reduced to enable it to focus on what it should be doing which is serving the licence fee payers, rather than serving itself with jobs that would be better if they didn't exist.'

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, added: 'This is evidence of the BBC's bloated management layer, which costs licence fee payers a fortune.
'There is no other broadcaster that has such an excess of executives, and the frustrating thing is that few of them are actually working on delivering programmes to the public.

'People want the licence fee to be reduced, and a simple way to do that would be cutting out some of this flabby top layer.'
The documents revealed a crop of lucrative six-figure positions associated with the BBC's forthcoming move to Salford Quays near Manchester
Many of the top bosses such as TV chief Jana Bennett employ highly paid chief advisors despite the fact they are on eye-watering salaries themselves.
Director general Mark Thompson last year took home £834,000 as the corporation's most senior executive.

But still the person running the director general's office Jessica Cecil commands a pay deal of £130,000 per year.

Three of the other most senior executives at the BBC, Mark Byford, Jana Bennett and Caroline Thomson also get 'chief advisor' deputies.
Richard Addy, on £108,800 last year, is chief advisor to Mark Byford the deputy director general and journalism chief, who took home £485,000 last year.
Claire Dresser, is paid £103,300 to run the executive office of director of vision Miss Bennett, who took home £515,000,
Chief operating officer Caroline Thomson, who took home £413,000 last year has a chief adviser called Tom Sleigh who earned £81,000 in the same period.
The documents also showed:
Of the 107 executives who were detailed yesterday 46 of them were paid more than Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose salary is £194,250.
Radio 1 boss Andy Parfitt claimed £550 for the cost of equipment to climb Mount Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief.
Director general Mark Thompson claimed almost £650 for two nights at the plush Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas.
The documents confirm long-held suspicion that the BBC is top-heavy with hordes of bosses on vague and indecipherable job titles.
Lib-Dem culture, media and sport spokesman Don Foster said: 'Many people will be gobsmacked by some of the claims and salaries revealed today.

'The licence fee should be spent on high quality programmes, not unnecessary hotels and flights.'
Shadow Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: 'This is good news as far as it goes and I welcome it as a step in the right direction.

'They can't stop here though. We must see a full breakdown of what the BBC pays their celebrity talent. It is licence fee payers money and full transparency is a must.'

The BBC said it had 'gone beyond any other public body' in organising the data released yesterday.
Caroline Thomson, the corporation's chief operating officer, said: "Today's quarterly disclosure is a significant move for the BBC in our continued commitment to achieving ever greater openness and transparency to the public who pay for the BBC.
'Today's launch is a direct response to the public, who have indicated that they would like more information about how the BBC is run in a way which marks a step change in openness, simplicity and accountability.

'We are meeting the spirit as well as the letter of the law.'
The corporation said about 1 per cent of the information about expenses released today was blanked out because it was personal or business-sensitive.
In June the BBC published the salaries of its 50 top-earning managers, and revealed that its executives claimed more than £350,000 in expenses between 2004 and 2009.
Earlier this year it had been revealed that in total 383 bosses were rewarded than £100,000 at the corporation.
Last month the BBC announced it was slashing its £79m pay bill for the top 634 senior managers by 25 per cent but will not directly cut the salaries of executives.

Governing body, the BBC Trust, unveiled new measures to cut the corporation’s inflated staff costs but stopped short of cutting pay, despite heavy criticism from politicians and the wider industry about its lavish remuneration culture.
The broadcaster will also axe 114 senior jobs over the next four years in a bid to tackle accusations that it is bloated with middle managers.

A further 400 executives will their management salaries frozen until 2011 while bonuses have been suspended until 2012.
The broadcaster has frozen the pay of any staff paid more than £60,000 until 2010, while those paid under that were given a flat pay increase of £450 this year.

[Teddy Bear]

Madsen Pirie, who is President of the Adam Smith Institute
writes his thoughts in the Telegraph about the implications shown by the BBC greed.

The BBC: Auntie or Floozy?
The bloated expense claims by BBC personnel provides further evidence that the broadcaster cannot be trusted to handle taxpayers' cash, argues Madsen Pirie.

Nobody calls the BBC "Auntie" any more. "Auntie" was an affectionate name for someone who might have been a trifle prim and stuffy at times, but who was basically reliable and behaved herself with decorum. "Auntie" was not the type of person who stayed in Las Vegas hotels, clocked up taxi rides at £200 a time, or who went to town on expensive lunches and dinners.

The revelations concerning the expenses charged by top BBC executives are but the latest in a series of blunders and scandals that seem to beset the corporation. Its image was badly dented by disclosures that it encouraged quiz show callers to make costly calls even after the prizes had already been awarded. Nor was it helped by its handling of the prank calls by Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand, by disclosures that it had made a documentary seem more significant by altering its chronology, or by misrepresenting an apparent row involving Queen Elizabeth.

The bloated expense claims will be taken by the BBC's critics as further evidence that it cannot be trusted to handle the cash it receives from taxpayers with any sense of responsibility, and that ways of funding it alternative to the licence fee must be found. Certainly some of the claims raise eyebrows. The BBC's top executives average over £200,000 per year in pay, with many of them earning more than the Prime Minister, yet some of them still find time to claim 70p parking meter charges. And some of their expense claims bear witness to a lifestyle that most of their licence-fee payers can only envy.

Most people struggle with public transport, making the best they can of buses and trains, yet two BBC personnel between them clocked up over £10,000 on taxi bills over a three month period. The BBC defends this, saying that taxis are "more convenient and cost-effective" than public transport. Most people would agree with this, though unable themselves to spend public money on satisfying that convenience.

The claims may not be as exotic as some claimed by MPs, but the same principle is at stake. The public does not like to see those funded by taxpayers living it up while ordinary people have to struggle to get by. It is seen as a bad indicator when a business organization allows bloated expense claims by its personnel, and the same is true of the BBC. Coming after revelations over the huge sums they pay their celebrities, the public is beginning to think that their money is being passed around in buckets. Greater accountability and alternative methods of funding have just moved higher up the agenda.