General Motors has put two engineers on paid leave in wake of the ignition switch debacle, one them reportedly being the engineer who lied under oath about his role in approving the faulty part.
Ray DeGiorgio and Gary Altman have been placed on paid leave in connection with the massive recall, sources told Bloomberg. Altman worked as an engineering manager on the Chevrolet Cobalt, one of the small cars included in the 2.6-million vehicle recall, while DeGiorgio was working as lead design engineer on the model's problematic ignition switches in 2006.
In a statement, CEO Mary Barra confirmed that two engineers had been placed on leave.
"This is an interim step as we seek the truth about what happened," Barra said in a statement. "It was a difficult decision, but I believe it is best for GM." Barra did not name the engineers in the announcement.
During last week's hearings before the U.S. Congress, a senator asked why DeGiorgio "lied" under oath in a 2013 deposition related to a 2009 case where a Georgia woman was killed in a Chevrolet Cobalt.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., a former prosecutor and chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, demanded to know why the engineer claimed during the deposition that he never signed off on a change to the ignition switches, despite documentation to the contrary.
"It might have been the Old GM that started sweeping this defect under the rug 10 years ago," McCaskill said at the hearing, as reported by Reuters. "Even under the New GM banner, the company waited nine months to take action after being confronted with specific evidence of this egregious violation of public trust."
GM is conducting an internal investigation to see why the problem, which has resulted in at least 13 deaths, was overlooked for so long. The company has also launched a new program called Speak Up for Safety that is intended to encourage employees to come up with ideas for safer technology and speak up if they see a potential problem.
The recall, which started this week, includes the 2005-'10 Chevrolet Cobalt, 2005-'07 Pontiac G5, 2003-'07 Saturn Ion, 2006-'11 Chevrolet HHR, 2006-'10 Pontiac Solstice and 2007-'10 Saturn Sky.
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