'Enron' row rages over BBC accounts
A Labour MP has sparked a furious row with the BBC after he accused the corporation of producing an annual report which 'feels more like a kind of Enron annual report'.
Link: Compromise reached on BBC accounts
The accusation was made by Chris Bryant, Labour MP for Rhondda and a member of the media and sport select committee, in a hearing with BBC directors and governors.
A furious Greg Dyke, the BBC’s director general, demanded an apology for comparing the organisation with a ‘corrupt financial organisation’.
Bryant said he was happy to apologise for ‘any imputation of anybody being financially corrupt’, but did not stand down from his accusation that the report was ‘fundamentally complacent’.
The row follows the publication of figures, which showed licence fee funding of £2.659bn, but a net debt of £74m. In addition the corporation’s pension would be more than a £1bn in deficit if it was calculated using FRS 17.