The BBC made secret payments of up to £3.3 million to staff who left the Corporation during the last financial year.
Figures released under Freedom of Information laws confirm that 22 employees received a pay-off from the public broadcaster worth up to a maximum of £150,000 each.
It sickens me to think our tv licence fee goes towards paying such obscene salaries. Where is the justification?https://t.co/3T2x4oChbW
— DreGray (@andreagray58) September 15, 2016
However, in keeping with the BBC’s policy of refusing to explain to licence fee payers how their money is spent, bosses have claimed that it would take too long to find out the reason each settlement payment was made because it would take too long.
The total of each payment is not clear either.
The FoI response stated that the payments were made between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2016.
Addressing the question of why the settlements had been reached, the response added: “In order to provide this information, we would need to manually check the background documentation for the Employment Law Department’s files for each of the 22 settlement agreements and we anticipate that this would take more than two and a half days to complete.”
The BBC has a long history of obscuring information about pay-offs and settlements from those who fund it.
In 2015 it came to light – also thanks to the FoI Act – that it blew £500,000 fighting an unfair dismissal case after rejecting a £50,000 settlement.
John Linwood was sacked as the BBC’s chief technology officer in 2013 over the Digital Media Initiative fiasco.
The failed computer project cost the broadcaster £100million, making it the most expensive scandal in its history.
Linwood claimed he was made a scapegoat and sued.
Bake Off leaving the BBC?! That's the only thing on the BBC my TV licence money is worthy off
— Ross Homson (@rosshomson) September 12, 2016
He offered to settle the case for £50,000 six weeks before it was heard. But the BBC refused and lost. It had to pay him up to £76,900 in compensation last year.
It also spent £498,000 on legal fees.
Explaining the 22 payments it made during the last financial year, a BBC spokesman said: “As with other businesses, the BBC uses settlement agreements where appropriate to record the terms of a settlement between the employer and employee such as for protecting intellectual property – these do not include gagging clauses. The BBC went further than most of the public sector when we capped payments at £150,000 in 2013.”
