London: Britain`s public spending watchdog says it will investigate severance packages at the BBC in the wake of a highly-criticised payout to the broadcaster`s former director general.
The probe comes after a group of British lawmakers accused the BBC of being cavalier with taxpayers` money by paying 450,000 pounds (USD 730,000) in severance to George Entwistle, double the amount he was entitled to, when he quit last month over the BBC`s disastrous handling of fallout from the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal.
Barry Lester, a spokesman for the National Audit Office, said today that the watchdog had written to BBC saying it wanted to look at Entwistle`s payout and that the broadcaster had responded by asking the NAO to undertake a wider study in 2013 on its severance packages.
PTI
