Mr Campbell said,
“Absolute transparency of how license payers’ money is used in the BBC should be the goal for BBC management. The scandal engulfing RTE in the Republic should be a lesson for all recipients of public funds here in the UK also.
I campaigned for decades for salaries of BBC figures to be published in the same way as MPs’ salaries are published. Belatedly the BBC published salary bands and with such transparency it became clear that female employees within the BBC were not paid on a par with their male counterparts.
Whilst there is still some distance to travel on transparency with BBC salaries, the area of greater concern is that of programme making. Especially where BBC employees are the owners of production companies and then seek mega contracts to make programmes for the BBC.
Whilst additional checks and balances were added after I campaigned on this matter in the past, there remains a cloud over contracts awarded in the last decade. It is inexplicable why contracts that ended ten years ago are still locked away in secret. All BBC commissioning contracts should be published after they have ended.
I have asked the current BBC NI Director if any BBC presenters, over the last fifteen years have ever been recipients of arrangements similar to that engulfing RTE at the moment. Indeed I have also highlighted where there were joint BBC and RTE productions, these cases should have a special review.”
