MPs yesterday called for parliament to be given greater freedom to scrutinise how the BBC spends its £2bn a year funding from the licence fee.

The Commons public accounts committee has written to the culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, asking for the National Audit Office to be able to choose independently which aspects of BBC funding it examines.

Six such investigations are being conducted by the NAO, but it can scrutinise only areas of BBC spending that it agrees in advance with the corporation's governors. The committee wants to go beyond this compromise deal and open up the BBC to further financial scrutiny by the NAO and accountability to parliament.

It called for greater scrutiny of the BBC's finances in its report into the corporation's investment in the digital terrestrial TV service Freeview, one of the spending reviews the governors' audit committee has agreed with the NAO.

"Subjecting value-for-money in the BBC to full independent scrutiny would in no way undermine the BBC's independence from government," said the committee's chairman, Edward Leigh.

"Our aim is not to rewrite the storyline of EastEnders but simply to ensure that the BBC is as accountable to parliament as any other organisation spending public money."

The BBC said that it saw little need to change the existing auditing arrangements. A spokeswoman said: "We share the committee's interest in ensuring the public money we receive is spent well. Though in its infancy, we think the arrangements with the NAO are working well and should be given time to mature."

The report praised the success of Freeview, launched in October 2002 and in almost 4m homes by last September.

"When ITV Digital went into administration in 2002, there was widespread uncertainty about the future of digital terrestrial television," it said. "The BBC's investment helped ensure that digital terrestrial television continued and was available subscription-free."