The United States Senate is not backing down on its overwhelming criticism of General Motors and how it handled the recent recall of thousands of vehicles over an ignition default that left a number of people dead.
In the latest hearing on the matter in Washington, D.C., senators questioned GM CEO Mary Barra over why the company's top lawyer was not sacked over GM's failure to respond properly and quickly to the situation.
Barra dismissed the calls for Michael Millikin to be removed from his position as General Counsel, saying he is a vital member of her team and is helping to fix the Detroit company, adding that there existed "different facts" on each of the individual recalls the company has announced, and responding it wouldn't be appropriate to treat other models that have faulty switches the way the company is handling 2.6 million small cars that were recalled years after a part was secretly fixed. GM has recalled close to 29 million vehicles this year, including those small cars.
"I would say there's very different facts related to what happened with the Cobalt ignition-switch situation versus the other actions we've taken," Barra said. "Very different."
It was Barra's fourth appearance in front of a congressional panel. She faced hard questions during her April hearing and again was hit with much criticism this time around, but also received some praise over tackling how to compensate and treat victims of the ignition-switch default.
"While General Motors' legal department came under withering attack from the Senate committee investigating the ignition switch debacle, GM CEO Mary Barra emerged largely unscathed in the questioning, and I'm certain that is seen as a win by the top executive team at GM," Jack Nerad, executive editorial director and senior analyst for Kelley Blue Book's KBB.com was quoted as saying in response to the hearing.
The calls for Millikin's removal, however, hit home with Barra, who delivered her harshest retort to the idea of forcing their top litigator aside. She instead argued that the company's response and ensuring and fixing the problem with what went awry is paramount to GM's goals for safety.
