According to the Times, the producer may have offered a security consultant a bribe in exchange for information.
As reported here last Friday, the BBC postponed the broadcast of the Panorama eposiode, saying that fresh information had been received “late in the production process of this film”.
In a statement today, the BBC said: “In light of information received late in the production process of this film, the BBC decided to postpone broadcast. We are currently reviewing the facts. As a result a member of the team has been suspended and a disciplinary procedure is under way.”
The show had originally been scheduled to air on BBC1 at 8:30pm on Monday.
In its story, the Times is reporting that the Panorama producer, whom it identifies as Matthew Chapman, had “allegedly e-mailed Sean Ghent, consultant to Harlequin Property, suggesting he might not be paid by the company and dangling the possibility of work with Panorama”.
The BBC’s "Anti-Briery Code of Conduct" sets out a "zero-tolerance approach" to bribery, stating that it "is committed to acting professionally, fairly and with integrity in all its business dealings and relationships wherever it operates".
The BBC statement does not make reference to the specific allegation of bribery. However, after the Times story broke, Harlequin responded with a statement of its own in which it expressed "shock" over the matter, and forwarded what it said was a copy of the email the BBC’s Chapman is alleged to have sent to the Harlequin Property security consultant.
Chapman’s email seeking to "induce Mr Ghent into disclosing information about Harlequin in return for the potential reward of future work from the BBC…appears to be tantamount to an attempted bribe", Harlequin said. It added that other members of Harlequin’s staff had received similar communications from Chapman that it had also forwarded to the BBC.
"Panorama made no attempt to contact Harlequin prior to making serious (yet entirely false) allegations to others about Harlequin’s alleged conduct, and failed to provide any evidence to support these allegations," the Harlequin statement continues.
It concludes by acknowledging "the speed at which the BBC has reacted" to its complaint and launched an investigation, and expressed a desire to know the results "in the very near future".
‘Great Savings Wipe Out’
The Panorama show had been billed as "the Great Savings Wipe Out", and according to a plug on the BBC’s website, it was to be an investigation into “a series of financial scandals which have put at risk the life savings” of thousands.
The inclusion of investments in overseas off-plan property developments like Harlequin in the self-invested personal pensions (Sipps) of UK investors has been an issue recently, as a number of such investments have failed to perform as well as they were expected to.
As reported, the Financial Services Authority issued an alert on Harlequin in January, and on 1 March, contacted Sipp providers, asking them to say whether they have any clients invested in the firm, which it said is not FSA regulated.
Through a spokesman, Harlequin has refuted the allegations of wrong-doing that the Panorama journalists were understood to have been looking into, and has said it regarded the FSA request for information from advisers as “merely a fact finding exercise… to determine the level of investment in Harlequin". This, it said, was "a typical approach taken by the FSA across many products" and was "no reflection” on the company.
"Harlequin has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and looks forward to concentrating on developing the business for the benefit of all its investors," the spokesman said, in a statement in response to the news that the FSA was contacting Sipp providers.
