The BBC is beginning disciplinary measures against some of those involved in the decision to run a Newsnight report on care homes in north Wales.
The broadcast led to former Tory treasurer Lord McAlpine being wrongly implicated in child abuse allegations.
Acting director general Tim Davie has vowed to "get a grip of the situation".
BBC Northern Ireland's head, Peter Johnston, said he had a role in the decision-making of the Newsnight report but was not reconsidering his position.
Mr Davie said he had set up a "clear line of command" in the news division. He took charge of the BBC following the resignation of George Entwistle over the Newsnight report.
The corporation's director of news, Helen Boaden, and her deputy, Steve Mitchell, have been asked to "step aside" pending an internal review into the way claims about Jimmy Savile were handled.
On Tuesday deputy prime minister Nick Clegg added his voice to those questioning the £450,000 severance pay that Mr Entwistle is due to receive.
He said: "Mr Entwistle's payoff is hard to justify, it's hard to explain - I guess he didn't need to take it when it was offered to him, but it's not really for governments to micro-manage these things in the BBC.
"The BBC is quite rightly independent of politics and of government, but it's up to the BBC to seek to justify these kind of decisions when they're made."
Meanwhile, the inquiry into the Newsnight broadcast has identified "unacceptable" failings and said basic journalistic checks were not completed.
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A summary of the findings by Ken MacQuarrie, director of BBC Scotland, has been released by the corporation, which said the full report would be issued after the completion of disciplinary proceedings, which will begin immediately.
It added that "there was a different understanding by the key parties about where the responsibility lay for the final editorial sign off for the story on the day".
'Justified and necessary'The BBC Trust - the corporation's governing body - said Mr MacQuarrie's findings were "very concerning".
"It is clear... that there were serious failures in the normal checks and balances... The measures that Tim Davie has put in place are sensible and appropriate."
A BBC spokesman later confirmed Mr Johnston's involvement "in decisions about the BBC Newsnight report".
Mr Entwistle resigned after eight weeks as director general following the 2 November Newsnight report which led to former Tory treasurer, Lord McAlpine, being wrongly accused of child abuse in north Wales in the 1980s.
The National Audit Office confirmed it would be speaking to the BBC Trust to investigate whether it should conduct a value for money study of the decision to grant him a payout £450,000 - a year's salary.
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Acting director general Tim Davie: "My job now is to get a grip of the situation and take action"
Earlier, amid criticism from Downing Street of the pay-off, Lord Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust, wrote to Commons culture, media and sport committee chairman John Whittingdale, describing the decision as "justified and necessary".
His letter said the sum was what the BBC would have had to pay if the trust had fired Mr Entwistle and that the trust was considering sacking him if he had not volunteered his resignation.
In other developments:
In his first televised interview since taking the role, Mr Davie told the BBC News channel: "If the public are going to get journalism they trust from the BBC I have to be, as director general, very clear on who is running the news operation and ensuring that journalism we put out passes muster.
ABUSE INQUIRIES
- Operation Yewtree: Scotland Yard criminal investigation into claims that Jimmy Savile sexually abused young people
- BBC investigation into management failures over the dropping of a Newsnight report into the Savile allegations
- BBC investigation into culture and practices during Savile's career and current policies
- BBC investigation into handling of past sexual harassment claims
- Department of Health investigation into Savile's appointment to Broadmoor "taskforce" and his activities at Broadmoor, Stoke Mandeville Hospital and Leeds General Infirmary
- Director of Public Prosecutions review into decisions not to prosecute Savile in 2009
- North Wales abuse inquiry by National Crime Agency head into abuse claims from 70s and 80s, fresh claims, and police handling of the claims
- Mrs Justice Macur appointed by PM to review the 2000 Waterhouse review which looked into the north Wales abuse
- BBC Scotland director Ken MacQuarrie into what happened with the Newsnight investigation into north Wales abuse claims
"The first decision I have made is to get a grip of that, take action and build trust by putting a clear line of command in.
"Separately, we are going to look at the individual process, and there may be disciplinary action. But I want to be fair to people. I don't subscribe to the view that you should act very quickly in that regard and be unreasonable."
He said Mr Entwistle's pay-off was a matter for the BBC Trust.
Mr Davie told BBC Radio 4's World At One he hoped to talk to Lord McAlpine personally about the Newsnight broadcast.
Ken MacQuarrie's findings were presented to the acting director general on Sunday.
The BBC said it found that neither Ms Boaden nor her deputy Mr Mitchell "had anything at all to do with the failed Newsnight investigation into Lord McAlpine".
However, they were in the chain of command at the time that Newsnight shelved an earlier investigation into abuse claims against former BBC presenter Jimmy Savile.
They had removed themselves from making decisions on some areas of BBC News output while a separate inquiry, by former head of Sky News Nick Pollard, was held into that decision.
The BBC said once the Pollard Review reports, Ms Boaden and Mr Mitchell "expect to then return to their positions".
Meanwhile, MP Chris Bryant said there should be one overall inquiry looking into the child abuse scandal and subsequent BBC row rather than nine separate investigations.
The BBC is also looking into the culture and practices at the corporation during Savile's career and its handling of past sexual harassment claims.
Also, inquiries have been set up by the government to look into the way the original investigation into the abuse in Wales was handled and separate inquiries have been launched by the Department of Health and Director of Public Prosecutions.
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