Ex-BBC director general denies £1m pay off was fueled by greed
Former BBC director general Mark Byford has defended a pay-off package which saw him leave the broadcaster with £949k in his back pocket by claiming that it was ‘not greed’.
Speaking to Radio 5 Live’s Victoria Derbyshire Byford said: “I absolutely don't think it was greed on my part at all", adding that the package was ‘properly approved’ and saying: "I absolutely think I've done no wrong."
Byford has ducked suggestions he reimburse the cash following publication of a National Audit Office report which found that the BBC paid out £2m more in severance to 150 departing executives than it was contractually required.
Of all these payments Byford’s was the single biggest.
Byford continued: "I lost my job, I was made redundant, I left when I was told to leave by the BBC. After 32 years of working there I was devoted to the corporation. It was a lot of money and it was in a context that I was the number two at the BBC and I'd served more than 30 years there.
"It was in a context of being made redundant in a very big cull of senior management. I felt very strongly myself that it should touch every level including right at the very top."