Comments made by General Motors CEO Mary Barra ahead of the New York auto show have attracted a sharp retort from a US senator.
According to the Detroit News, Barra repeatedly defended the company – including its initial decision to recall less than half of the vehicles with faulty ignition switches – while saying she “agonised” over a decision to suspend two engineers linked to GM’s failure to address problems more quickly.
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Senator Richard Blumenthal reportedly tweeted: “Unbelievable she would ‘agonise’ over holding accountable those whose concealment of safety defects caused injuries and death.”
The Detroit News noted that. earlier in the day, Blumenthal had asked Barra to disclose the time frame for getting replacement switches to dealers after a survey found that many dealers in Connecticut hadn’t received replacement parts. She said GM’s supplier is close to getting a second production line running, and GM has asked for a third line.
Barra again declined to address most specifics about the recall of cars that have been linked to 13 deaths but she defended the company’s decision on 31 January to recall just 800,000 cars. Two weeks later the company doubled the recall to include cars with the same defective switch, and then in March expanded the recall to another 1m cars to find faulty replacement switches.
Commenting on her decision to place two engineers on paid leave in connection with the recall of the 2.59m cars, she said, “There was a lot of attention and we agonised over that decision, but we felt it was right for the individuals and right for the company at this time. But they are on paid leave.”
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By GlobalDataShe declined to speculate if GM had a broader systemic problem in responding to safety issues. “These are real people with real careers,” she said.
GM on Monday said its head of human resources and its public relations chief were leaving effectively immediately and followed an appearance at the NADA/JD Power Automotive Forum with the announcement of a new global product integrity unit at the automaker.
Asked at the forum how important stability was in management, she said: “I think it’s really important to have an ‘A+’ team across the board. … You have to take the right actions to have an ‘A+’ team.”
The Detroit News said Barra declined to give a time frame for when GM would answer all 107 questions that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had ordered it to answer by 3 April. The automaker is racking up $7,000 a day in fines for failing to answer all of the questions in the 30-day allotted period.
“We work on those every day,” she said. “We are trying to be as responsive as possible.”
Barra also said GM had worked to change its culture over the past five years and that it was no longer is fighting for survival but was “more focused on quality and doing what is right for the customer that at any time in my 33 years with the company.”
She also said GM still plans to meet the 45- to 60-day time frame for releasing the initial findings of an internal investigation headed by a former US attorney in Chicago, according to the report.
