MPs are to question BBC executives on Thursday over the £450,000 payoff agreed for former director general George Entwistle, who resigned this month after the Newsnight affair.
Members of the House of Commons public accounts committee want to know why the BBC Trust, which oversees the broadcaster, decided to give Entwistle double his entitlement to six months' pay.
Entwistle resigned after the flagship news programme dropped a correct report exposing child abuse by Jimmy Savile and then broadcast a second incorrect report alleging that former Conservative party treasurer Lord McAlpine was a paedophile.
The cross-party committee of MPs had recalled BBC chiefs to answer further questions over "off-payroll" arrangements and paying people through personal-service companies. But MPs say they will also raise questions about Entwistle's deal. Maria Miller, the culture secretary, described the payoff as "hard to justify".
Lord Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust, said the payoff was "justified" because it enabled the broadcaster "to conclude matters quickly". The BBC also "required George's ongoing co-operation in a number of very difficult and sensitive matters".
He said Entwistle would have been entitled to 12 months' notice if he had been sacked. Entwistle's "honourable offer to resign" meant trust members did not have to consider dismissal, he said.
MPs will question Zarin Patel, the BBC's chief finance officer, Anthony Fry, a member of the trust with responsibility for value for money, and Bal Samra, director of BBC rights and business affairs.
Margaret Hodge, the committee chair, told the website Exaro: "It is the issue of the moment. People feel very angry, and we shall question both the board member and the member of the executive who will appear before us.
"Of course, we shall listen to what they have got to say. We do not want to pre-judge. But it seems a heck of a lot of money for just 54 days in post and after getting things so badly wrong."
The committee published a report last month condemning off-payroll arrangements at the BBC and across Whitehall, which was exposed by Exaro. The deals enable individuals, and employers, to pay less tax.
The Student Loans Company was paying its chief executive, Ed Lester, through a personal-service company without deducting tax or national insurance under concessions granted by HM Revenue & Customs.
Stephen Barclay, a Conservative MP on the committee, said: "It is a value-for-money issue, and if he was paid twice what was on his contract, I would like to understand the value-for-money implications of that."
Barclay said the main purpose for Thursday's hearing was about to establish why the BBC paid so many people through personal companies. He plans to ask why the corporation pays people off-payroll on the basis that they earn some secondary income from "the odd corporate gig" or book.
"BBC presenters would be very quick to criticise a member of parliament for suggesting that an outside interest meant they were freelance," he added.
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