GM CEO Mary Barra, you must understand, had no idea the Cobalt recall was happening until very very late in the game indeed, and is gobsmacked as anyone over this non-existent cover-up. Barra promises massive sweeping changes to remedy anything that might have happened during a cover-up that never happened. Fifteen employees were fired. However this was due to them being incompetent noodleheads who were not engaged in a cover-up. To reiterate, a cover-up didn’t occur, says a “extremely thorough, brutally tough, and deeply troubling” report GM did on itself which exonerates top management from any responsibility.
“Overall the report found that, from start to finish, the Cobalt saga was riddled with failures which led to tragic results for many,” Barra said, noting that the report revealed no conspiracy by the company to cover up the facts and no evidence that any employee made a trade-off between safety and cost.
Barra said 15 individuals who were determined to have acted inappropriately are no longer with the company.