General Motors is in suspicion of donating to charities to ensure charities present CEO Mary Barra with awards and other honors as the company looks to rebuild is image, Autoblog reports.
A letter from National Legal Policy Center president Peter Flaherty to GM chairman Tim Solso said the different awards given to Barra from charitable organizations are a way for Barra to buy publicity following its ignition switch recall catastrophe. The organization also requested GM turn over records of its charitable donations.
The NLPC also criticized Barra two months ago when the National Women’s History Museum gave her a “Living Legacy Award” in the wake of the deadly ignition switch crisis. Family members of those killed in GM cars with faulty switches spoke out against the award, seeking to have it revoked.
The Daily Kanban has also published an article highlighting multiple suspicious awards given to Barra. In one case, an “Appeal of Conscience” award was given to GM not long after its ignition switch scandal broke, and a local news outlet pointed out GM was an “underwriter” sponsor at the event. The automaker also gave $70,000 to the Michigan Women’s Foundation in 2013, which gave Barra a “Women of Achievement and Courage” award in April of last year.
If it is found the awards were given in exchange for of monetary contributions, GM and the charities may be in breach of Internal Revenue Service regulations. GM is being asked to release its charity records, with the NLPC saying it will file a shareholder resolution at GM’s shareholder meeting in June if it does not.
Comments
Same way Donald Sterling was buying his Lifetime Achievement Award from the NAACP.
Cynical to be sure, but it seems like SOP for the ethical folks populating PR depts.
Total BS!
GM and many others there have a tarnished image but Mary is one of the few there that is in leadership that has not been tarnished. If anything she is the one that is being pointed to for doing the right things since she took over last year.
If you look at National Legal Policy Center they are the people who are on the sides of the lawyers. If anything Mary is the one they have not been able to tarnish in the iginition deal and this is where they are trying to brand her as evil.
The truth is this is a statigic legal move to help the cases that are pending at GM. Right now they have a CEO trying to resolve the issues and has done well in guiding GM thorugh this mess int he last year.
As for money give out GM does this often and regular as we see the many things they donate too highlighted here.
If you do not want to beleive what I just said just read the Book What Did Jesus Drive by Jason Vines. He covers cases just like this as he was a PR guy who had to deal with even greater crisis like the Explorer deal. He tells how these legal groups and the safety people who are support the legal action groups and the games they play to try to turn things to their advantage.
One only has to remember the ones who really come out good in this deal is only going to be the lawyers who take at least half or more of the settlements.
If this was Rick Wagonner you would not have even see a story like this as he was already tarnished enough just being in charge at the time this stuff happened.
Mary is the one they have had issues dealing with as she is clean and she has handled this crisis well. This is not good for a legal case and they know it.
I do recomend the Vines book as it is a real case study how things like this work. He worked for Nissan, Chrysler and Ford in some really tough times. He dishes the dirt not just on the PR side but the other side too with Management, Legal and safety groups. It is a must for anyone who does not work in the industry to help learn why things like this happen.
Also the inside story on the Ford Deal and Nissan are amazing.
This comes from GMs website directly.
” Prior to her current position, Barra served as Executive Vice President, Global Product Development, Purchasing & Supply Chain since August 2013, and as Senior Vice President, Global Product Development since February 2011. In these roles, she was responsible for the design, engineering, program management and quality of GM vehicles around the world.”
So would this not make her responsible for the GM mess with ignitions?
Prove it!
Just because you are in charge does not mean you track each of you’re 1000 plus employee’s.
You really need to learn how things really work in the real world.
My boss and my bosses boss know little about what I do as the only measure results. That is how thing really happen.
Though while i do what I do if the result fail then I need to answer for it.
When in charge of millions of parts you can not as one person track each one,.
Now on the other hand these legal consoles are not always looking out for you as they like to stir up panic and lies to help them mine money from corporations. And yes you and I end up paying for it
Stephen
I would recommend you read the book Car Guys Vs Bean Counters. It is there where Lutz tells of how he found GM when he arrived.
Many of the different level management people had to meet numbers to get their bonuses. They often did it by means that hurt GM and the Product and no one was the wiser even some of the managers.
This was part of the Damaged Culture I and many other speak of. What happened at lower levels would often not be caught buy those higher up as they never saw or knew how the numbers were attained.
Why did this system go unchallenged? Because with many at GM that was the way it was always done. In years past it may have worked but today it was failing and the fact is because many of the short comings were never documented few took action because they just did not know.
The GM ignition deal is very easy to understand that maybe only a handful of people knew about it on various levels. That is why it is difficult to know just who did know. Automakers are often as dysfunctional as the government.
This also is not just a GM issue but most automakers GM just was one of the worst at this.
Their poor internal structure really was that bad and that is what they are trying to change.
For years they rewarded mid management for incompetence and many never knew.
So unless you or someone else has a smoking gun with Mary’s name on it or a direct tie then you have no proof she knew and the fact is based on how things were done she very well did not know. A handful of mid level guys protecting their own ass could have stopped this much lower down so they could make their numbers.
So like I said Prove it! Not as easy to do as it is to say is it and many of the biggest lawyers are out there looking for it. To be honest GM was so screwed up It is very possible this even got covered up with incompetence and not dishonesty. GM was so screwed up I don’t think they could have hid this on purpose this well. Yes things were that bad internally.
Just read the book and see a glimps at how bad Bob found things when he arrived. He also calls people that are part of the problem and others that were not part of the problem. He has pointed out Mary was one that was not part of the problem years before this crisis came up.