Taxi fares on the up for BBC executives
Many areas of spending on accommodation, travel and hospitality for corporation bigwigs have been reduced, with expenses claims overall down 8% year-on-year.
But spending on cabs has risen by 19% in a year, according to the latest quarterly expenses claims released by the BBC, and they were 49% up on the previous quarter.
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Hide AdAmong the big claimants was the outgoing chief operating officer Caroline Thomson - paid a salary of £307,000 - who put taxi fare claims amounting to £1,178.97 into the latest batch of claims.
The corporation’s creative director Alan Yentob, who is paid £168,300, spent £822.88 on cars in his quarterly claim.
The BBC publishes claims for all senior managers who earn in excess of £150,000 and it said it had made “significant progress” in reducing expenditure with total expenses down 8% compared to the same period a year earlier.
A BBC spokesman said: “Total expenses have fallen by 15% compared to the previous quarter and down 8% on the same time last year.
“The bulk of our expenses are unavoidable routine costs incurred in running a major international broadcasting organisation. However we continue to be mindful of how we spend public money and have made good progress in tightening our expenditure.”
The BBC said that a “significant proportion” of the taxi spend for the quarter was due to a change in the charging system which meant journeys for the previous quarter had been added into the latest claims.