BBC suspends technology boss John Linwood following DMI multi-million money ‘waste’
Following the news that the BBC is scrapping its Digital Media Initiative (DMI) after spending £98.4m on the project, it has now been revealed that technology boss John Linwood has been suspended.
Linwood, who earns £287,000-a-year, will be on paid suspension while a review on the project is carried out by the BBC Trust.
In a statement, Tony Hall said he was stopping the project before any more money was wasted.
He said: “I saw no reason to allow that to continue which is why I have closed it. I have serious concerns about how we managed this project and the review that has been set up is designed to find out what went wrong and what lessons can be learned. Ambitious technology projects like this always carry a risk of failure, it does not mean we should not attempt them but we have a responsibility to keep them under much greater control than we did here.”
The project has been running for three years.