BBC bosses investigating Huw Edwards took more than four weeks to respond to a new serious complaint that could aid their probe.
They only replied to the whistleblower, a recent ex-Beeb employee, the day after The Sun contacted them about it.
The complainant first contacted the BBC on July 13 — after news presenter Edwards, 61, was named as the suspended star whose behaviour was being investigated.
An email asked them to contact the BBC’s Corporate Investigations team, which they did two days later.
After not receiving a reply, they contacted the BBC again on July 31.
They stated they were an ex-BBC worker who had something to add to their probe as well as information about another employee.
By August 10, there was no response so The Sun raised it with the BBC’s press office.
The next day — last Friday — Simon Adair, Director of Safety, Security and Resilience, emailed the whistleblower asking for their number.
Their serious allegation is of improper, not criminal, conduct.
The complainant said yesterday: “It is shocking they did not respond to me for so long, and I had to contact them three times.
“This is very serious so should be looked into.”
Our original story on July 8 revealed an apparent failure to investigate claims that a BBC star paid thousands to a troubled teen who sent him sexual images.
A BBC spokesperson said: “We welcome anyone coming forward with information to contribute to our existing fact-finding investigation. While we wouldn’t comment on the detail of our on-going process, the BBC has reached out to this individual.
“We take all contacts to the BBC very seriously. Our work is progressing and we have set out our approach on these matters in correspondence with the DCMS select committee who have published this on their website.
“Separately we are reviewing our non-editorial complaints process with Deloitte, and this work continues.”