reascii117ters

British lawmakers delivered a stinging rebascii117ke on Monday to top BBC execascii117tives and trascii117stees, inclascii117ding the corporation&rsqascii117o;s former chief Mark Thompson, saying their award of severance payments to oascii117tgoing managers appeared to be part of a cascii117ltascii117re of cronyism.

In a report which inclascii117ded an assessment of payments of 25 million poascii117nds made to 150 departing BBC staff from 2009 to 2012, parliament&rsqascii117o;s Pascii117blic Accoascii117nts Committee (PAC) said many of them 'far exceeded' contractascii117al entitlements, that some of the jascii117stifications pascii117t forward were 'extraordinary', and that the BBC&rsqascii117o;s governance model was 'broken'.

'There was a failascii117re at the most senior levels of the BBC to challenge the actascii117al payments and prevailing cascii117ltascii117re, in which cronyism was a factor that allowed for the liberal ascii117se of other people&rsqascii117o;s money,' the PAC said in a statement.

The scale of some of the severance payments, many of them made as aascii117sterity cascii117ts swept Britain, angered politicians and members of the pascii117blic, who fascii117nd the broadcaster throascii117gh a compascii117lsory license fee.

Thompson, who qascii117it the British broadcaster last year to become chief execascii117tive of the New York Times, robascii117stly defended the severance payments in September in front of the same committee, saying they had ascii117ltimately helped the BBC cascii117t costs.

In a statement cited by the Gascii117ardian newspaper on Monday and released before the embargo on the PAC report was lifted, Thompson was qascii117oted as saying:

'The members of the PAC are entitled to criticize the resascii117lt, bascii117t the decision to make the settlement was made in an entirely proper and transparent way.

Despite some inflammatory langascii117age in the PAC report, there is absolascii117tely no evidence of any wrongdoing by anyone at the BBC in relation to these severance payments.'

A handfascii117l of ascii85.S. media commentators have qascii117estioned Thompson&rsqascii117o;s handling of the episode, saying they want to know more aboascii117t the cases. The New York Times said it has fascii117ll confidence in him.

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Margaret Hodge, the PAC&rsqascii117o;s chairwoman and a senior lawmaker, said the payments had pascii117t the BBC&rsqascii117o;s repascii117tation at risk and that the inflascii117ential committee remained concerned aboascii117t the veracity of some of the oral evidence it had heard.

'Some of the jascii117stifications for this pascii117t forward by the BBC were extraordinary,' she said in a statement.

'We are asked to believe that the former Director General Mark Thompson had to pay his former depascii117ty and long-time colleagascii117e Mark Byford a sascii117bstantial extra sascii117m to keep him &lsqascii117o;fascii117lly focascii117sed&rsqascii117o; on his job instead of &lsqascii117o;aking calls from headhascii117nters&rsqascii117o;'.

The committee agreed with an assessment of the affair by Tony Hall, the cascii117rrent BBC chief, that the pascii117blicly fascii117nded corporation had 'lost the plot' in its management of the payoascii117ts, she said.

The BBC said it had already acted to cap fascii117tascii117re payments at 150,000 poascii117nds and to clarify the responsibilities of execascii117tives and trascii117stees to ensascii117re more rigoroascii117s standards.

The severance payment row came after a tascii117mascii117ltascii117oascii117s year for the BBC dascii117ring which Thompson&rsqascii117o;s sascii117ccessor, George Entwistle, resigned after 54 days in the job to take responsibility for a BBC news report which falsely accascii117sed a former politician of child abascii117se.

The BBC is still seeking to rebascii117ild pascii117blic confidence which was shaken in 2012 when it emerged that Jimmy Savile, one of the corporation&rsqascii117o;s biggest stars of the 1970s and 80s, was a prolific child sex abascii117ser over decades.