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Licence-fee payers will pay £3 million to send BBC staff to cover the London Olympics from Manchester - a year after the corporation relocates.
About 1,500 employees will move to the BBC's new home at the MediaCity base in Salford before the Games.
This means that less than 12 months after the move, the BBC will land licence fee payers with a bill for the flights, train fares, taxis and accommodation for up to 500 employees making the 400-mile round trip to the capital for the Games.
One source said: "They should delay the move by a year or two rather than spend millions in extra cash. The BBC is already under fire for wasting money on expenses and now they are about to waste even more."
The BBC has promised its coverage of the Olympics will be the "most comprehensive broadcast the BBC has ever undertaken".
But while some staff will be based in London, including the BBC's £250,000-a-year Olympics chief, Roger Mosey, the majority will be brought in from Manchester at a cost of between £2 million and £3 million.
The estimate, based on the figure spent sending 437 staff to last year's Beijing Games, will include paying for workers in sport, children, Radio Five Live, learning and technology departments to stay in London for the two-week event.
Today shadow culture MP Philip Davies said: "It's the type of thing that could only happen at the BBC, because it has a 'money is no object' culture."
A BBC spokeswoman said it was considering having a London-based core team to cover the 2012 Games, which would then move up to Salford afterwards.
"As we are almost three years away from London 2012, plans for covering the Olympics are still being developed and any suggestion of the costs involved is pure speculation," she added.
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