BBC opens up its finances to scrutiny from audit office

The BBC is to open up its finances to scrutiny by the National Audit Office in its role as public spending watchdog, it will be announced today.

In response to calls for more openness about how licence fee-payers' money is spent, it is understood that the BBC Trust has agreed to accept changes allowing the office freedom to choose which areas of the corporation's operations it wants to investigate.

Until now, the office has only been able to scrutinise areas chosen by the trust as part of the value-for-money studies of BBC activities which the trust carries out as the corporation's governing body. Auditors have only been able to get involved in the studies at the behest of the trust.

The terms of the deal will be announced by the Liberal Democrat culture spokesman, Don Foster, at the party's annual conference in Liverpool today.

Despite granting access to the office, restrictions are expected to remain on the publication of information about certain sensitive subjects, such as the commercial deals with independent companies, and the amount of money the BBC pays to on-screen stars.

The corporation has taken flak in the past for not publicly disclosing individual salaries paid to its stars, a stance that has played into the hands of concern that it is paying over the odds for talent.

While the office reports directly to parliament on its investigations into other public bodies, its findings on the BBC go to the trust, which then presents its own report to MPs through the Commons public accounts committee.

That arrangement, designed to preserve the BBC's independence from political pressure, is understood to be maintained under the new deal.

Discussions about opening the BBC up to greater scrutiny have been going on between the trust and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport over the summer.

Earlier this month, trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons indicated that he would be open to a potential expansion of the audit office's scrutiny role.

"They have a strong voice in which areas to conduct their studies in, but at the moment those are subject to agreement by the trust," he told the Commons culture, media and sport committee.

"It is not impossible to imagine them having greater freedom to name the areas they want to go in, and I don't think the trust would be unwilling to consider that as the way forward.

"There just need to be a few ground rules then about how those are conducted."


By Haroon Siddique.

Source:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep/22/bbc-finances-scrutiny-audit-office