THE BBC has wasted more than £65,000 of licence-payer’s cash on taxis, trains and hotel rooms that were never used.
Some 344 rail tickets, 870 cab journeys and 190 hotel bookings were paid for but aborted – with no refund able to be claimed – in the last three years.
Cancelled train trips cost £19,124, abandoned hotel reservations added another £31,155, while wasted taxi fares totaled £14,771, according to data released under Freedom of Information laws.
It means the Beeb has wasted £417 per week on transport and accommodation which nobody used.
Last year, each unused cab cost the broadcaster an average of £17.50, cancelled train tickets cost around £57 each, while the hotel bookings stood at £175 each.
The £65,050 total squandered is equivalent to around 361 TV licences.
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Anne Strickland, researcher at the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “License fee payers will be appalled that the BBC has wasted tens of thousands of pounds on journeys and hotel rooms nobody even used.
“£65,000 may be small change to Broadcasting House, but it is still money taken from households through an outdated and hated TV tax.
“The licence fee should be scrapped, and the BBC forced to stand on its own two feet.”
The real figure is likely to be even higher, as the FOI Act does not cover expenses incurred by the BBC for its creative outputs, such as news, radio, or the arts.
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The figures relate solely to policy and strategy, finance and operations, legal, HR and other central support teams.
In April, the BBC was forced to introduce immediate cost-control measures, including tightening up on all non-essential travel, in a bid to save £500 million over the next two years.
In an email to staff, interim director general Rhodri Talfan Davies said the broadcaster is facing “significant financial pressures”.
He added: “Put simply, the gap between our costs and our income is growing.
“This is being driven by a number of factors: production inflation remains very high; our license fee and commercial income is under pressure; and the global economy remains turbulent.”
The Beeb announced it will cut between 1,800 and 2,000 jobs – almost one in 10 – and impose tighter controls on recruitment, management consultancies and attendance at awards and events.
Several TV shows are also set to be axed as the broadcaster slashes content spending by £80 million.
Earlier this week, The Sun revealed that the beloved series RuPaul’s Drag Race is being cancelled after 11 series.
Other popular shows being terminated include Blankety Blank, Celebrity Mastermind, and Live At The Apollo.