Ex-employee accuses corporation of allowing 'inaccurate statements' to be made to MPs over failure of digital initiativeThe BBC chief technology officer dismissed over the failure of the Digital Media Initiative, the IT project scrapped last year at a cost of nearly £100m to licence fee payers, is taking legal action against the corporation.John Linwood revealed in written evidence published by the Commons public accounts committee on Tuesday that he was taking legal action, as well as accusing the BBC of allowing "inaccurate statements" to be made to MPs.It was revealed last week that Linwood's contract was terminated in July 2013 without a payoff, two months after he was suspended when the DMI project was scrapped.The ambitious DMI scheme was supposed to do away with the need for videotapes across the BBC and use digital technology to call up archive footage – but it was axed in May 2013 with £98.4m of licence fee funding written off.On Tuesday the PAC published 90 pages of written evidence ahead of a further committee hearing about the DMI debacle on Monday. Mark Thompson, the former BBC director general who is now chief executive of the New York Times, has been recalled and will give evidence along with former BBC finance chief Zarin Patel, trustee Anthony Fry, ex-chief operating officer Caroline Thomson and BBC operations director Dominic Coles.Linwood wrote in his PAC evidence: "I have issued legal proceedings against the BBC and intimated contractual claims, and am... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]