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mark occomore
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
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Location: UK
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 Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 4:38 pm Post subject: BBC Expenses Revealed |
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| Quote: | Mark Thompson, the BBC director general, claimed more than £2,000 last year to fly his family back early from a holiday in Italy to deal with the "Sachsgate" row, newly released expenses details have revealed.
Thompson claimed a further £1,277 for the charter of a private plane in the US in August 2004 when he was called back to the UK from another holiday to deal with an internal investigation into creative director Alan Yentob's expenses.
These were just two of thousands of expenses claims made by Thompson and 12 other past and present members of the BBC executive board over the past five years, totalling £363,963.83, full details of which were released today as the corporation responded to calls for it to be more open and accountable.
On its website the BBC published five years' worth of line-by-line expenses for its executive board members after a series of freedom of information requests. The data offers an extraordinarily detailed snapshot of the inner workings of the BBC.
Thompson has claimed a total of £77,823.35 in expenses since 2004 - more than any other executive board member. This included a claim for £2,236.90 to fly him and his family back to the UK early from a holiday in Sicily on 30 October last year to deal with the Sachsgate row that engulfed the BBC after offensive messages left on actor Andrew Sachs's answer machine by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross were subsequently broadcast in Radio 2.
Thompson flew back to London to attend an emergency BBC Trust meeting and take charge of the corporation's response to the scandal.
The BBC said the chairman of the audit committee on the executive board agreed that the expense would be met by the corporation in advance of it being claimed. BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons was also informed. Thompson also claimed for £206 for "business entertainment" for his holiday being cut short.
In August 2004 Thompson interrupted another holiday, in the US, for an "urgent staff issue", chartering a Cessna charter plane from Maine to Boston as part of his trip back to the UK. The BBC declined to identify the staff issue, but according to one corporation source, Thompson had to return from his holiday because of the investigation into Yentob's expenses.
Yentob was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing in October 2004, following an investigation by then BBC chief operating office John Smith.
"This was a Cessna plane chartered from Maine to Boston in order to interrupt a family holiday and return to London to deal with an urgent staff issue. The charter was approved in advance by the chairman of the board of governors," a note attached to the expenses claims states.
Thompson also made a series of claims for eight separate meetings with various soon-to-be BBC colleagues, including Jana Bennett, Jenny Abramsky and Andy Duncan, before he left Channel 4 to become director general in 2004, totalling £451.85.
He has also been a generous host of farewell dinners for departing BBC executives. The "internal" farewell dinner for departing factual and learning director John Willis was claimed by Thompson at a cost of £596.27 in October 2006.
The cost of Duncan's leaving dinner, when he moved to Channel 4 to replace Thompson as chief executive, was recouped by the director general in two separate expenses claims in September 2004, one for £263.33 and the other for £1,755.50.Thompson
When BBC Worldwide chief executive Rupert Gavin left the BBC, his internal farewell dinner was charged at £1,690.03 by Thompson, while former head of human resources Stephen Dando's farewell in March 2006 cost £512.44.
Among other claims in the director general's expenses for 2008-09 are £99.99 for a bottle of Krug Grande Cuvée champagne as an 80th birthday present for Bruce Forsyth in February last year.
While there was no clearing of a moat – one of the expenses claims famously submitted by shamed MPs – Thompson did claim £278 for staying at the Queens Moat hotel in Cambridge on 15 September 2007, for the Royal Television Society convention.
Other insights into BBC executives' expenditure include Bennett, the director of BBC Vision, claiming £35 for "hair stylist services" for a TV interview on 16 December last year, as well as £500 on 6 February for an insurance claim after her handbag was stolen while on "official business". The expenses claim form said the BBC agreed to pay half the cost of replacing the property and cash stolen.
Former director of future media and technology, Ashley Highfield, spent £1,512.72 on an internal staff meeting on 10 April last year as well as £1,430.08 for a meal for 29 people at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas "after 11 hours [on] duty" at the NAB festival.
The BBC refused to release specific details of expenses claims relating to its big name stars, only releasing total amounts of claims. Bennett spent £39.99 on 28 November on "gifts", while Thompson spent £40.95 on 26 January, and BBC director of audio and music Tim Davie spent £100 on 30 May last year.
A Thompson lunch in 2006 with DJ Chris Evans cost the BBC £79.83, while in 2005 the director general's Christmas dinner was charged at £945.
Other expenses incurred by Thompson over the past five years include £1,823.10 for a business trip to New Delhi in 2007, a £237.25 lunch with Liberal Democrat politician Sir Menzies Campbell in 2006, and a stay at the deluxe Beverley Hills L'Ermitage hotel in 2005, which cost the BBC £836.40.
Thompson also routinely charged the BBC for the cost of his Bafta membership. However, the cost of a taxi trip following a meeting with Gordon Brown in November 2006 cost the BBC a mere £10.50.
Bennett has the next biggest expenses bill after Thompson over the past five years, clocking up £59,637.73; with Highfield claiming £47,517.76 before he left last year.
Smith, now chief executive of BBC Worldwide, has claimed £36,184.74; while Davie, former director of marketing and now running BBC audio and music, has recouped £26,936.94. Abramsky, who Davie replaced as director of music and audio last year, claimed £20,865.07.
Mark Byford, the deputy director general, has been the most frugal of the executive board members who have been in their jobs for the whole five year period, claiming £13,858.38. However, this did include £14.99 splashed out on a "QPR history book" in September 2007.
The BBC also today published the salary bands and expense details of its 50 highest-paid executives for the 12 months to the end of March 2009.
Peter Salmon, the BBC's new director of its north of England operations, is the corporation's highest-paid manager below the executive board, on a salary of between £370,000 and £400,000.
Alan Yentob, the BBC creative director along with director of future media and technology Erik Huggers, director of news Helen Boaden, and director of marketing, communications and audiences Sharon Baylay, were on the next highest amounts of between £310,000 and £340,000. However, Yentob's salary was described as the "full-time equivalent of his pro rata salary for reduced hours".
Salmon, who is married to former Coronation Street actor Sarah Lancashire, is paid more than the base salaries of several members of the BBC executive board, including chief operating officer Caroline Thomson, who is on £328,000; chief financial officer Zarin Patel, who collected £329,000; and director of audio and music Tim Davie, on £314,000.
He is charged with ensuring the succes of the BBC's move to a new northern headquarters in Salford Quays, due to open in 2011. Five departments – 1,500 staff – are relocating from London, including sport, children's and Radio 5 Live.
BBC1 controller Jay Hunt's salary is between £250,000 and £280,000 – a band higher than her BBC2 counterpart Janice Hadlow, who is on £220,000 to £250,000, the same level as BBC3 controller Danny Cohen.
New BBC4 controller Richard Klein is the lowest paid of the four main television channel controllers, on between £190,000 and £220,000.
Ed Williams, the BBC's director of communications, earns between £220,000 and £250,000.
The BBC radio controllers – Radio 1's Andy Parfitt, Radio 2's Bob Shennan, Radio 3's Roger Wright and Radio 4's Mark Damazer – earn between £190,000 and £220,000.
Radio 5 Live's recently appointed controller, Adrian van Klaveren, does not make the list of the top 50 highest earners. Director of the World Service Peter Horrocks also makes between £190,000 and £220,000.
Julie Gardner, the former head of drama for BBC Wales and Doctor Who executive now working in the US, emerged as the second highest spender on hospitality overall, claiming £7,764.51 in 2008/09, just £276.22 less than the director general.
The Radio 4 controller, Mark Damazer, was the third highest spender on hospitality with £7,266.02, while Radio 1 controller Andy Parfitt claimed £7,044.60. Parfitt was also the hungriest BBC executive, claiming £340.34 on meals in 2008-09.
By far the biggest claimer of overnight accommodation was Radio 3 controller Roger Wright, at £6,152.24 - double that of Thompson's £3,169.89.
Other eye-catching claims from the top 50 highest management earners at the BBC include £611.03 for business calls from BBC3 controller Danny Cohen - nearly three times as much as Thompson - while most of his colleagues claimed nothing in this area. |
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jun/25/bbc-expenses-mark-thompson-private-jet-jana-bennett
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colby
Joined: 06 Feb 2009
Posts: 1216
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| Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 4:19 pm Post subject: |
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I like the way you cut 'n paste AND then give the URL, Mark. On form as usual, eh? 
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Toggy
Joined: 18 Aug 2008
Posts: 1239
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| Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:45 pm Post subject: |
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| How the other half live eh? nice to know the licence fee is well spent *tuts* |
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colby
Joined: 06 Feb 2009
Posts: 1216
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| Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 8:36 pm Post subject: |
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There's really nothing new in any of this, and it's all the subject of a witch-hunt by the media, many of whom just want to see the BBC stripped down and partially (or wholly) privatised.
The downside of all this nonsense is that the Beeb will be even more nervous about taking creative risks with programming (as it famously did in the 1960s and - to a lesser extent - in the 70s) and in turn we'll be subjected to even more of the same bland, samey, formulaic rubbish across all its outlets.
I wonder what such public scrutiny of Hugh Carlton-Greene would have produced - but does it matter?
What people forget is that when the Beeb does well, it manages to sell both programming and formats all over the world in order to generate a high income - Doctor Who is just one example of many - so perhaps we need to let good managers manage, even when it costs money in order "entertain"?
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