Two Salaries
In days gone by the BBC was a byword for integrity and probity - or so it liked us all to believe anyway.
Now for years the Beeb has been paying completely ridiculous salaries to some of its presenters and senior managers - and more recently it broke all records, in the public sector anyway, for its generous treatment and 'golden goodbyes' for people who were leaving the BBC - and in some cases even being shown the door.
So, it's sad to see yet another poor practice being exposed - in not telling the whole truth in response to an FOI request about the salary paid to a senior executive - which prompted The Independent newspaper to run the following piece.
Alan Yentob paid two salaries by the BBC
The BBC arts chief's combined wage is reportedly over £300,000 after a FoI request revealed a second undeclared revenue stream from the Corporation
By James Legge
The BBC arts chief Alan Yentob receives two salaries from the Corporation, only one of which is publicly declared, it has been revealed.
Mr Yentob declares his £183,300 annual wage as BBC Creative Director in the official online register of the BBC’s 100 senior managers as his "salary and total remuneration".
However, a reply to a Freedom of Information request has revealed that he also picks up another salary, as editor and presenter of arts series Imagine, according to the Daily Mail.
The BBC and Yentob declined to reveal the second salary's value, but BBC insiders suggested it is "easily" in the region £150,000 per year, which would take his annual salary to more than £330,000.
In response to the FoI request, the BBC reportedly confirmed that the 66-year-old's salary as Creative Director "does not include any remuneration for Mr Yentob’s contribution to the Imagine series," but declined to divulge how much the extra pay comes to, saying: "The information regarding Mr Yentob’s fees for the Imagine series is out of scope of the Act."
The Corporation argues that presenters' fees are "commercially sensitive" and therefore secret because they could be of use to rival employers who want to poach their staff.
