The glacial pace of this public psychodrama is hardly likely to amplify those limited payoffs.
On Wednesday the NAO said its further investigation of BBC payoffs confirmed "the conclusion set out in our earlier report".
The NAO prompted the recent BBC convulsions over executive severance payments after revealing in two separate reports that the BBC had spent £2.9m more than it was contractually obliged in payoffs to former senior executives.
Bland said the NAO and the Commons public accounts committee, where seven senior BBC figures appeared on Monday to account for the corporation's payoffs in what chair Margaret Hodge described as a "grossly unedifying" hearing, "do good work" and "what they put their finger on was important".
Tony Hall, the BBC director general, who has pledged to put a cap on controversial redundancy payoffs, said: "Both these reports underline what we already knew – approvals, record keeping and oversight were poor.
On Wednesday BBC management also published a separate report by auditors KPMG examining severance payments from July 2006 to December 2009, which made recommendations for stricter oversight of redundancy payoffs including a "detailed business justification report" to be written in each case prior to authorisation.
The Mannesmann payoffs were triggered by an Anglo-Saxon takeover which shareholders accepted, but they were the product of German corporate governance, which is ripe for reform.But will the bad press turn Germans away from shares altogether?
Apart from Mr Esser's money, at issue is the approval of payoffs worth DM100m, most of which went to past members of Mannesmann's top brass.
That lack of ambition means venture-capital firms have few big payoffs to look forward to, with the result that there is a limited pool of cash available for those who do want to have a go at starting a business: a vicious circle that will be hard to break.
The new sanctions are also likely to involve considerable payoffs to other Security Council members.Unseating SaddamThe contradiction is that, even as America tries to find a new way of living with Mr Hussein, it is again toying with the idea of getting rid of him.
All are volunteers and the training programmes are hugely oversubscribed.This effort has domestic payoffs, too.
