The Labour MP Chris Bryant, a member of the parliamentary select committee and former BBC executive, accused the corporation of Enron-like complacency in its report for its failure to mention any critcisms of the corporation.
"This feels more like a kind of Enron annual report than a BBC annual report," Bryant said.
Bryant lambasted the corporation's board of governors for only highlighting BBC's failure to attract ethnic minority viewers. He said: "At what point would you want to advance any criticism of the BBC at all?"
Director general Greg Dyke leapt to the corporation's defence and demanded an apology. He said: "Can I say I deeply resent the use of the word Enron. Enron was a corrupt financially-managed business. That's what you're implying."
Criticisms aside, the report for the year ending March 31 2003 revealed that BBC Worldwide saw revenues jump 16% to a record £123m, as the BBC's total income rose from last year's £3.38bn.
The rest of the broadcaster's income was made up largely by the licence fee, which brought in £2.66bn for 2002-3, up from £2.6bn a year earlier.
However, the broadcaster also reported net debt of £74m, but said that it should reach break-even by the end of the current charter, which is up for renewal in 2006.
Investment in programming rose by £346m but, despite this extra cash, BBC One is still struggling with declining audiences in a number of areas.
Its board of governors singled out Saturday nights as "challenging" for BBC One, while young audiences in the South East are falling as is the number of viewers from ethnic minorities.
Dyke said the corporation was looking at ways to boost its Saturday evening schedule.
"It would be nice to have a new entertainment show that picked up 8m-10m viewers," he said.
The broadcaster has been working on addressing its failure among these viewers with the launch of digital services, including youth TV channel BBC Three and a raft of digital radio services, as well as its digital children's TV channels, and arts and culture station BBC Four.
The BBC increased spending on digital services to £279.9m in 2002/3 -- a jump from £184m last time.
Dyke defended the leap in spending on digital services as a reflection of the growth of the audience of its digital channels, "especially in Freeview homes".
He said that investment in digital would continue and did not see the need for a cap on spending in that area.
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