Excellent work by the Belfast NewsLetter in obtaining - courtesy of a freedom of information request - the taxi bill run up by BBC Northern Ireland. It reveals that BBC NI spent £290,000 in one year on taxi fares. That's £800 a day.
Our public service broadcaster tried desperately to keep this fact to itself by refusing to disclose it when first asked. It required an order from the information commissioner before BBC NI coughed up the figures for the 2004/05 period. Another surprise was the "hospitality bill" of £267,000 (£730 a day).
But why is BBC NI still refusing to give more up-to-date figures? According to a spokeswoman, taxi costs have since come down as part of an overall value for money programme. She added: "Staff now use a centralised booking system which enables us to monitor taxi use and negotiate better deals with suppliers."
Fine. Then why not prove it by revealing the figures for 2005/06 and 2006/07?
Surely BBC chiefs now realise, with continuing public concern about the licence fee, that the corporation must be as open and squeaky clean as possible. It should not need FOI requests in order to open its books. It's our money. We should know how it is used.
Now that the NewsLetter has done this in Northern Ireland, it's surely time for us to know what is spent by BBC Wales, BBC Scotland and, of course, the vast empire in England.
Memo to newspaper editors everywhere: get those FOI requests in asap.
