The BBC came under fire on Tuesday for botching a 100 million pound ($170 million) digital project in the latest of a series of reports to criticize top management for their running of Britain’s publicly funded broadcaster.
Public spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) said BBC executives led by then Director General Mark Thompson, now New York Times Co. chief executive, failed to realize in time that the Digital Media Initiative was in trouble.
The project, axed in May last year, was meant to allow staff across the BBC to create and share video and audio content on their desktops but technical problems and delays eroded confidence in it.
The NAO found the BBC executive board led by Thompson was too optimistic about its ability to handle the project and did not have “sufficient grip” over an 18-month period.
The BBC lost 98.4 million pounds on the project, which was cancelled by current Director General Tony Hall.
Thompson is due to return before parliament’s public accounts committee on Feb. 3, along with other past and present BBC executives to answer questions about the failed project.