5 Improving the BBC's accountability
to Parliament
32. The current arrangements for the Comptroller
and Auditor General to examine value for money at the BBC arise
from a 2006 agreement between the Secretary of State for Culture,
Media and Sport and the BBC, which replaced a similar agreement
made in 2003. Under the agreement the BBC Trust can ask the Comptroller
and Auditor General and others to conduct value for money reviews,
but it has the final say as to which subjects are examined and
by whom. The BBC Trust also decides what information is made
available. The reports go to the BBC Trust and are subsequently
laid before Parliament by the Secretary of State.[39]
33. Table 1 summarises the differences
between the Comptroller and Auditor General's statutory
powers to carry out value for money work in other organisations
and the arrangements for his work at the BBC, where he has no
powers. Table 1:
Statutory value for money audit compared to the arrangements for
the Comptroller and Auditor General's work at the BBC
| THE COMPTROLLER AND AUDITOR GENERAL'S STATUTORY AUDIT
| AGREEMENT-BASED WORK AT THE BBC
| PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCE OF THE DIFFERENCE
|
| The Comptroller and Auditor General has full discretion to decide the subjects for value for money examinations
| The BBC Trust has the final say as to which subjects are examined, and which subjects are offered to the Comptroller and Auditor General.
| The Comptroller and Auditor General is not in a position to insist on examining and reporting on those activities where he considers value for money is most at risk.
|
| The Comptroller and Auditor General has the right of access to the information he considers necessary to complete his work.
| The Comptroller and Auditor General has no right of access to BBC information. The BBC Trust decides what he can see.
| The Comptroller and Auditor General is reliant on the BBC's willingness to share information, and is not as well informed as he would be if he audited the BBC's accounts.
The Comptroller and Auditor General's value for money work for the BBC Trust is limited by barriers to access such as the Data Protection Act and confidentiality clauses in contracts with, for example, presenters and contractors.
|
| The Comptroller and Auditor General determines the timing and content of what he publishes.
| The Comptroller and Auditor General's work is commissioned by the BBC Trust and published by the Trust, in conjunction with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which lays the reports before Parliament.
| The Comptroller and Auditor General does not have the final word on the content of his reports and when they are published.
|
34. We have noted a number of practical ways in which
the absence of statutory powers for the Comptroller and Auditor
General's value for money work of the BBC has hampered both his
access to information and his ability to report his findings.
- In his review of the BBC's
management of its coverage of major sporting and music events,
the Comptroller and Auditor General was not in a position to judge
for himself whether the BBC's arguments against disclosing
the total costs of talent for individual events would have constituted
a breach of the Data Protection Act, as he had no right
of access to the primary data. As a matter of prudence, in the
light of representations by the BBC Trust who were responsible
for publishing his report, he published combined figures for staff
and talent costs, with the result that even aggregated talent
costs for individual events were not published.[40]
- The Comptroller and Auditor General was not able
to develop a complete understanding of the costs of making radio
programmes as he did not have a right of access to the breakdown
of programme costs, including those for talent. He was not prepared
to sign the agreement offered to him by the BBC to give him access
because of the constraints it would have placed on his discretion
to report his findings.[41]
- Confidentiality clauses in the contracts between
the BBC and some presenters have prevented the Comptroller and
Auditor General's full access to the information he considered
necessary to complete his audits of the efficiency of the BBC's radio
production and of its coverage of major sporting and music events.
By entering into confidentiality agreements with some presenters
the BBC is putting public money beyond the scrutiny of the Comptroller
and Auditor General and Parliament.[42]
35. If the Comptroller and Auditor General had been
able to act under his statutory powers of audit in the above instances
he would have been able to use his professional judgement to balance
the public interest in disclosure against the impact such disclosure
might have.
36. The BBC has also been less than transparent in
the information it has offered to this Committee on several occasions.
- In our hearing on The BBC's management
of risk we identified talent costs as area of the BBC's expenditure
in which we were interested.[43]
The BBC Trust chose to commission an examination of this
subject from a private sector consultant. The BBC Trust decides
what is published, and in this instance published a report with
many figures redacted. This redacted report is what the BBC offered
us in response to our interest in talent costs. Box 1 makes clear
the inadequacy of this document, offered to this Committee, as
a basis for public accountability.[44]
Box 1: Extract from Oliver & Ohlbaum report
On-screen and on-air talent to the BBC Trust,
May 2008
- At our hearing on the BBC's
management of its coverage of major events in February 2010, we
asked the BBC to provide a breakdown of the aggregate figures
for staff and talent costs for each of the six events in the report.
The BBC Trust refused to provide this information, which it had
already shared with the Comptroller and Auditor General, unless
this Committee confirmed in writing it would not disclose those
costs.
- At the same hearing on major events, we asked
the BBC for a breakdown of the market for outside broadcast providers.
In its subsequent note the BBC Executive simply refused to provide
the specific value of individual contractual elements or the bids
of individual parties, citing commercial confidentiality.
37. This Committee represents Parliament in examining
how public money is spent. On issues from national security to
commercial contracts of great sensitivity we have examined contracts
and sensitive material. It beggars belief that the BBC Trust refuses
to provide, or attaches strings to, information required by the
Committee to examine the BBC's use of public money.
38. In October 2009 the Government agreed that the
National Audit Office's access to the BBC should be unrestricted,
but left the BBC to discuss with the National Audit Office how
this could be achieved.[45]
This is unsatisfactory in that the Government is willing the end
without providing the necessary means to that end. Neither the
National Audit Office nor the BBC can legislate to give the Comptroller
and Auditor General the statutory right to audit the BBC that
this Committee has been demanding, so the Government cannot be
neutral in that discussion.
39. The BBC Trust has since committed to using
its best endeavours to provide the Comptroller and Auditor General
with improved access to the BBC's information and agreed
with the Comptroller and Auditor General arrangements improving
access. This is helpful but it falls short of, and is by no means
a substitute for, the full statutory access rights the Committee
of Public Accounts is seeking. The fact remains that the BBC retains
discretion over the information the Comptroller Auditor General
has access to and publishes.
40. In October 2009, the Secretary of State for Culture,
Media and Sport told the Committee of Culture, Media and Sport
that if the National Audit Office and the BBC were unable to arrive
at satisfactory access arrangements, the next charter review,
in 2016, would be the time to address the issue.[46]
Putting proper accountability to Parliament on hold for six years,
is unacceptable.
41. As a matter of principle, the BBC's use
of public money should be subject to the same statutory audit
of its financial statements and value for money scrutiny by the
Comptroller and Auditor General as is the case for other
publicly funded organisations. The BBC has not accepted this,
arguing that Parliament has set up the BBC Trust with an
explicit duty to scrutinise the BBC's expenditure, which it has
done in part by commissioning reports from the Comptroller and
Auditor General and others and by appointing private sector accountancy
firms as the BBC's external auditors. The BBC has offered no convincing
argument as to why the Comptroller and Auditor General could not
be the external auditor of the BBC.
42. In November 2009, the Chairman of this Committee
wrote to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport setting
out why access which is at the BBC's discretion rather than
through statutory right, cannot deliver satisfactory accountability
for the use of billions of pounds of public money the BBC receives
and then spends each year. He did not reply.
43. At our hearing on the BBC's management of three
estates renewal projects in March 2010 the Treasury confirmed
that there is a very powerful case for the public audit of public
resources to make sure that the public and Parliament can be assured
that resources are being used as Parliament intended. The Treasury
also confirmed that extending the scope of public audit to this
end was the clear direction of travel. The BBC Trust's rearguard
offer to allow the Comptroller and Auditor General to tender for
the audit of the BBC misses the point. Public audit of public
money should be a right, not a possible outcome of commercial
considerations.[47]
39 Broadcasting: An Agreement between the BBC and the
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, July 2006 (Cm
6872) Back
40
C&AG's Report, The BBC's management of its coverage
of major sporting and music events, December 2009, para 46;
Q 11 Back
41
Committee of Public Accounts, Twentyfifth Report of Session 200809,
The efficiency of radio production at the BBC, HC 285,
para 2 and 13 Back
42
Committee of Public Accounts Twentyfifth Report, para 16 Back
43
Committee of Public Accounts, Sixtysixth Report of Session 200607,
The BBC's management of risk, HC 643 Back
44
Committee of Public Accounts, Twentyfifth Report of Session 200809,
The efficiency of radio production at the BBC, HC 285,
Q 38; BBC Trust Report, On-screen and On-air Talent including
an independent assessment and report, Oliver and Ohlbaum and
Associates, May 2008 Back
45
Treasury Minutes on the Twenty Fourth to the Thirtieth, the Thirty
Second to the Thirty Ninth, the Forty Fifth, and the Forty Seventh
to the Forty Eighth Reports from the Committee of Public Accounts
Session 2008-09, paras 4 and 6 Back
46
Oral evidence given on 20 October 2009 by Rt. Hon.
Ben Bradshaw MP, Secretary of State Back
47
Q 152 Back
|
