The BBC’s senior managers are being paid £44m between them, fresh figures have revealed.
Last year the BBC’s executive board agreed to waive their bonuses for 2009, in response to the deepening credit crisis. But these revelations about senior staff pay has caused critics to call for greater scrutiny and transparency into the way the organisation, primarily funded by the taxpayers’ license fee, is run.
Ed Vaizey, the Conservative arts and media spokesman, said: “We would use every weapon available to get the BBC to make these figures public, and, if they prove resistant, we will bring in legislation. Transparency for licence-fee payers is essential.”
He added the BBC should publish the pay of senior management and performers every year, as a mandatory rule.