Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, a former Attorney General, has reportedly called for the company’s ex-CEOs to help answer questions about what went wrong under their leadership.
The legislator suggests GM has failed to answer “a whole set of questions on why there were so many delays in taking action,” according to an interview with Reuters. “Of course we have to go back to the prior CEOs.”
Former GM chief Dan Akerson sits at the top of Blumenthal’s list of executives to question. Akerson succeeded Ed Whitacre to take the helm in 2010, and made a well-timed exit just weeks before the ignition-switch recall was announced under the new leadership of Mary Barra.
Although Barra has worked at GM for decades, she claims to have been first informed of the situation immediately prior to the recall announcement. The company has dodged specific questions by referring to its own internal investigation, which won’t be ready for several weeks.
“When the facts are in, we will be transparent and hold ourselves accountable,” said GM spokesman James Cain in a follow-up statement.
Critics suggest the recall delays can be blamed on a wider dysfunction within the company’s ranks, an unsurprising result of a penny-pinching ethos that was reportedly enforced from the top as the company struggled to remain profitable in the early 2000s.
It is unclear if the former executives will be asked to testify, as invitees to the next round of hearings will be decided by Senator Claire McCaskill.
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