BBC bosses lacked the technical knowledge "to challenge progress on DMI from a technology perspective" - knowledge "which could have provided a broader, more robust oversight".
The numbers had more to do with the banking world than public service, but they pale into insignificance when compared with the £100m spent on the failed digital media initiative (DMI), the bedevilled technology project that Hall hastened to shelve.
The executive at the centre of the DMI initiative, chief technology officer John Linwood, left the BBC in July last year when his contract was terminated without a payoff, the corporation confirmed last week.
The contract to deliver the technology solution for DMI was originally awarded to Siemens, and was brought back in-house to the BBC by mutual agreement.
The contract to deliver the DMI was originally awarded to technology company Siemens in 2008 but was taken over and relaunched by an in-house BBC team in 2010.
In this article we describe and test a theory of complementarities between design manufacturing integration (DMI) and usage of advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT).
John Linwood, the former BBC chief technology officer dismissed last year over the DMI fiasco who is taking legal action against the corporation, argues in his evidence to the committee that the scale of the write-down took insufficient account of the actual value of the assets DMI created – and he is far from alone in this view.
Diane Coyle, the BBC Trust vice-chair, said:"It is essential that the BBC learns from the losses incurred in the DMI project and applies the lessons to running technology projects in future.
DMI had a tricky start – initially contracted out to BBC technology supplier Siemens but then brought in-house back in 2009.
In his statement, Bill Garrett, former head of technology BBC Vision Productions, said he questioned the veracity of DMI cost figures and told colleagues the situation reminded him of the collapsed energy giant Enron, on which he had made a film for the BBC.
