A report from Parliament's Public Accounts Committee is set to question the high salaries paid to presenters such as Terry Wogan (£800,000), Chris Moyles (£630,000) and Sara Cox (£200,000).
It also emerged the BBC has refused to give the National Audit Office, which monitors government spending, access to its presenters' salaries unless it signed a confidentiality agreement.
The BBC has argued it is bound both by confidentiality agreements and the Data Protection Act over the salaries. It also believes revealing them risks driving the salaries up.
The figures obtained for the report by MPs were leaked three years ago. In addition to criticising the BBC over covering up the figures the committee's report points out up to three-thirds of programming costs are taken up by presenter’s salaries.
Chris Moyles and Terry Wogan's breakfast shows on Radio 1 and 2 respectively cost more per hour than similar commercial programmes. The report found the BBC spent 14% of its budget (£462m) in 2007/08 on 16 radio stations.
The committee chairman Conservative MP Edward Leigh said there was "a big question mark over whether the BBC is achieving value for money for the licence fee payer".
In response to accusations of "covering up" salaries, BBC trustee Jeremy Peat said the broadcaster was disappointed the NAO refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Peat added: "We believe our approach was in line with the Data Protection Act and the Information Commissioner's guidance.
"On the wider issue of whether salaries should be made public, the Trust accepts the management's argument that disclosing payment risks driving up the fees demanded by talent working against efforts across the BBC to drive down costs."
chris moyles
BBC slammed by MPs over DJ salaries
LONDON - The BBC will be criticised by MPs today after it emerged it was paying its radio presenters such as Radio 2's Terry Wogan up to six times more than their commercial rivals and is attempting to cover up the salaries.
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