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 13 May 2008 23:44 BST

BBC admits charities did not receive promised donations

Friday, 09 May 2008 12:30
BBC admits failure to make £106,000 donation to charity
The BBC has admitted that it failed to make a promised donation of more than £100,000 to charity after being fined for irregularities in phone-in competitions.

One day after ITV was fined £5.67 million by communications regulator Ofcom for a number of "serious editorial issues" regarding interactive phone-ins, the BBC has said that money which should have been donated to charity was kept, despite the broadcaster being found to have breached broadcasting codes.

Following the publication of reports by auditing firms Pricewaterhouse Coopers and Ronald Neil, the corporation has apologised after the discovery that a donation of £106,000 which was intended for charity was kept by telephone line operator Audiocall.

"This sum was in relation to calls made outside of the window in which votes were counted in a number of shows over a two-year period, ending in August 2007," a statement from the BBC confirmed.

"This was a serious oversight in Audiocall which must never be allowed to happen again."

The statement also revealed problems with telephone lines on the programme Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up 2007 meant that a "large volume of calls" was received when lines were closed.

"Neither the staff of this or any other programme, nor anyone else using Audiocall, were aware of the problem with the charity money," it added.

"The sums due to charity have now been repaid with interest. We would like to apologise to viewers and to the charities for this serious error."End of story

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