MPs call on BBC to open accounts

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The BBC should fully open its accounts to the National Audit Office (NAO) to prove it is getting value for money from the licence fee, MPs have said.

The Public Accounts Select Committee made the call in its report on how the corporation manages potential risks.

The committee cited the recent Blue Peter phone-in affair as an example of how the BBC was "not doing enough to manage and anticipate those risks".

It also raised doubts about the extent of the BBC's risk assessment policy.

In the case of the Blue Peter row, the report said the risks of trying to run a live phone competition had not been recognised.

The BBC was fined £50,000 by media watchdog Ofcom after the results of a Blue Peter competition were faked last November.

'Patchy'

Committee Chairman Edward Leigh MP led the calls for greater access to the corporation's financial dealings.

"The BBC's management of that risk would undoubtedly be much the stronger if the NAO were given the same independent rights of access to the corporation as it enjoys to other bodies funded by the public," he said.

Referring to the recent kidnapping of correspondent Alan Johnston in Gaza, the report also said the BBC should update its assessments of the risks of working in hostile environments.

It said the extent to which risk management was embedded across the BBC was "patchy", even in areas such as compliance with BBC editorial standards.

The BBC Trust said they are "confident that the BBC management team is vigilant in monitoring and taking appropriate action to mitigate the necessary risks that some BBC journalists face when doing their jobs to provide independent and accurate reporting".