This is taken from from Broadcast Online:

BBC to publish its top level exec expenses

The expenses spotlight is set to turn on the BBC later this year when the corporation begins publishing details of claims made by its executive board members.

The corporation will release information on the allowances claimed by its top staff every six months, "right down to the pounds and pennies".

The first tranche will be made public in October in a bid to increase transparency and demonstrate value  to the licence fee payer.

Before now, the expenses were available under Freedom of Information requests only, and the BBC stressed that it took the decision to publish the claims before the current political scandal around MPs' expenses.

However, it will stop short of publishing claims by controllers and senior executives who are not on the board, such as creative director Alan Yentob, in case the process becomes "destructive".

In 2002, Yentob sparked a media furore after he billed the BBC for a Glastonbury party held at his Somerset home.

Last year, it emerged that he had claimed £27,000 over the previous three years, including £16,830 for "entertainment" and £120 for a cake.

BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons told Broadcast that the emphasis would be on the expenses of top-level decision-makers who are in the public eye.

"The public would expect to be satisfied that they can see what [the decision-makers] are getting and what they're doing.

"I don't think that goes for every member of staff and indeed I don't think that would be an appropriate way of dealing with every member of staff," he said.

Lyons added that the BBC is already "taking a much tighter line" on what claims are allowable. Last October, it banned claims for champagne and set a £50-a-head limit on entertaining talent.

The Trust has published its trustees' expenses every six months since April 2008.

The last set revealed that Lyons claims £25,000 annually for a personal car and driver, and that he and trustee Diane Coyle together claimed £9,804 for entertaining "opinion formers" at Wimbledon.

Lyons pointed out to the Royal Television Society on Tuesday evening that he also bought a new television last year, but paid for it out of his own pocket.