London: The National Audit Office of Britain will launch an investigation after the BBC reportedly gave 200 senior managers pay-offs of more than 100,000 pounds each in the past three years, the Daily Telegraph reported. Lawmakers have said that leaving the BBC was like "winning the lottery".
George Entwistle, a former director-general, was given a payoff of 450,000 pounds, double the amount he was entitled to, the daily said. Figures obtained by the daily under Freedom of Information laws showed that 14 executives were given pay-offs of more than 300,000 pounds each, while 194 executives got 100,000 pounds each. The biggest pay-off was awarded to Mark Byford, former director of journalism, who got 949,000 pounds.
"I think there are a lot of people who will find it difficult to understand why there are so many people at the BBC on such high salaries merited severance payments of this size," Richard Bacon, a Conservative lawmaker, was quoted as saying.
A BBC spokesman said: "Staff who are made redundant receive what they are entitled to in their contract. While redundancies involve costs in the short term, in the long-term they represent significant savings."
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