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 WARREN, Mich. — A sweeping internal investigation of General Motors released on Thursday condemned the company for its decade-long failure to fix a deadly safety defect, one that led to “devastating consequences,” including at least 13 deaths. 
 
 The report, written by the former United States attorney Anton R. Valukas, set off the dismissal of 15 G.M. employees, including a vice president for regulatory affairs and a senior lawyer responsible for product liability cases, and forced broad changes in how the company handles vehicle safety. 
 
 The report illustrates in unsparing detail how employees across departments neglected for years to repair a defect and issue a recall, despite a mountain of evidence that lives were at risk. 
 
 “Although everyone had responsibility to fix the problem, nobody took responsibility,” Mr. Valukas wrote. 
 
 A chastened Mary T. Barra, G.M.’s chief executive, described the report as “deeply troubling” in a meeting with more than 1,000 employees at the company’s sprawling technical center in the Detroit suburb of Warren. 
 
 “For those of us who have dedicated our lives to this company, it is enormously painful to have our shortcomings laid out so vividly,” said Ms. Barra, who has worked at G.M. for more than 30 years. “I was deeply saddened and disturbed as I read the report.” 
 
 Yet the report cleared Ms. Barra and her top lieutenants, like Michael Millikin, the general counsel, of any wrongdoing in the long-delayed recall. And there was no evidence of a deliberate cover-up of the switch problems, according to Mr. Valukas. 
 
 “It seems like the best report money can buy,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, who had been highly critical of Ms. Barra at a hearing in April. “It absolves upper management, denies deliberate wrongdoing and dismisses corporate culpability.” 
 
 Mr. Valukas’s three-month investigation included a review of millions of documents and interviews with at least 230 people, many of whom were employees directly involved in G.M.’s failure to fix a faulty ignition switch that could cause vehicles to lose power and deactivate air bags. 
 
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 Since February, G.M. has recalled 2.6 million Chevrolet Cobalts and other small cars to fix the defect, which the company so far links to 13 deaths and 54 accidents. 
 
 But Ms. Barra admitted that the tally of deaths, injuries and crashes could grow in the weeks ahead, as the compensation expert Kenneth R. Feinberg prepares a report on how G.M. will make restitution to accident victims and their families. 
 
 Ms. Barra said the company had dismissed 15 employees as a result of the report, and disciplined five others — highly unusual in an industry where such purges have been rare. She declined to provide details about the actions, but said that more than half of those who left the company held senior-level positions. 
 
 Among them were Michael J. Robinson, a vice president for global regulatory affairs, and William Kemp, a top lawyer who oversaw product-related litigation, according to a person briefed on the moves. 
 
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 Those dismissed also included two safety executives, Gay Kent and Carmen Benavides, as well as two midlevel engineers, Raymond DeGiorgio and Gary Altman, both of whom had previously been suspended for neglecting to address the switch problem in its early stages. 
 
 “I never want to put this behind us,” Ms. Barra told employees. “I want to keep this painful experience in our collective memories.” 
 
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 The report offered an extraordinary window into a company where employees avoided responsibility with a “G.M. salute” — arms crossed and pointing fingers at others — and the “G.M. nod,” which Ms. Barra described in the report as “the nod as an empty gesture.” The report also lays bare a bureaucracy that appeared to stun Mr. Valukas. “The Cobalt ignition switch passed through an astonishing number of committees,” he wrote. “But determining the identity of any actual decision-maker was impenetrable.” 
 
 The investigation also documents how G.M. kept many internal discussions secret because of legal ramifications. “A number of G.M. employees reported they did not take notes at all at critical safety meetings because they believed G.M. lawyers did not want notes taken,” the report said. 
 
 The defective switch — a tiny part hidden inside the steering column of the recalled vehicles — has already taken an immense toll on the company’s finances and reputation. 
 
 Since the switch recall, G.M. has issued dozens of additional recalls to fix various problems on vehicles throughout its product lineup. The company has set aside $1.7 billion to pay for the repairs, appointed a new executive to supervise vehicle safety and begun a wide-ranging shake-up of its engineering department. 
 
 Still, G.M.’s most delicate task lies ahead — arriving at the exact number of fatalities and injuries caused by the faulty switch, and compensating the victims. 
 
 Those decisions, Ms. Barra and another senior executive, Daniel Ammann, told reporters, would be left up to Mr. Feinberg, as well as the amount of money that G.M. would pay for individual deaths and injuries. 
 
 Mr. Feinberg said Thursday that he hoped to complete his recommendations for the compensation program within a few weeks, and to be prepared to receive claims from victims and their families in August. 
 
 “I have already drafted some preliminary compensation ideas and plan to share them in confidence over the next few weeks with lawyers, public interest groups, G.M. and others interested in the compensation program,” he said. 
 
 G.M. has not released the names of any accident victims, citing a desire to protect their privacy. But some family members of victims, as well as people injured in crashes, have spoken out. 
 
 Candice Anderson was driving a Saturn Ion equipped with a defective switch in 2004 when it crashed in Texas, killing her boyfriend, Gene Erickson. 
 
 Continue reading the main story The Fault in the Cobalt Ignition Switch At the heart of the G.M. recall of 2.6 million Chevy Cobalts and other models was a tiny metal pin called the detent plunger, which would normally serve to hold the ignition in the “run” position. Plastic DisC DETENTS How the Detent Plunger Works When the ignition key is turned, it rotates a plastic disc inside the ignition switch. A small metal part, called the detent plunger, slides into notches, or “detents,” in the plastic disc. This is what should hold the switch in either the “run” or the “accessory” position. Detent plunger Chevrolet Cobalt Ignition Switch SHAFT CIRCUIT BOARD IGNITION SWITCH SHAFT HOUSING KEY CYLINDER Problem 1 Early model detent plungers were slightly too short, so the plastic disc could slip out of “run” and back into the “accessory” position, causing the car to stall. Problem 2 The problem was made worse by a key that had a wide slot. A heavy key ring swaying in this slot, or jostled by a knee, could pull the key out of run, into the “accessory” position. The Result If the ignition were switched off while the car was in motion, as could happen in the faulty Chevy Cobalts, the main computer controlling the airbags would stop working after one or two seconds. If the car crashed after that period, then the airbags would not deploy. Detent plunger 5.9 mm. 2005 MODEL YEAR FORCE 7.0 mm. 2007 AND LATER MODELS Spring longer and tighter WEIGHT OF KEY RING Detent plunger longer Plastic DisC DETENTS How the Detent Plunger Works When the ignition key is turned, it rotates a plastic disc inside the ignition switch. A small metal part, called the detent plunger, slides into notches, or “detents,” in the plastic disc. This is what should hold the switch in either the “run” or the “accessory” position. Detent plunger Chevrolet Cobalt Ignition Switch SHAFT CIRCUIT BOARD IGNITION SWITCH SHAFT HOUSING KEY CYLINDER Problem 1 Early model detent plungers were slightly too short, so the plastic disc could slip out of “run” and back into the “accessory” position, causing the car to stall. Problem 2 The problem was made worse by a key that had a wide slot. A heavy key ring swaying in this slot, or jostled by a knee, could pull the key out of run, into the “accessory” position. The Result If the ignition were switched off while the car was in motion, as could happen in the faulty Chevy Cobalts, the main computer controlling the airbags would stop working after one or two seconds. If the car crashed after that period, then the airbags would not deploy. Detent plunger 5.9 mm. 2005 MODEL YEAR FORCE 7.0 mm. 2007 AND LATER MODELS Spring longer and tighter WEIGHT OF KEY RING Detent plunger longer How the Detent Plunger Works When the ignition key is turned, it rotates a plastic disc inside the ignition switch. A small metal part, called the detent plunger, slides into notches, or “detents,” in the plastic disc. This is what should hold the switch in either the “run” or the “accessory” position. DETENTS Plastic DisC Detent plunger Chevrolet Cobalt Ignition Switch SHAFT CIRCUIT BOARD IGNITION SWITCH SHAFT HOUSING KEY CYLINDER Problem 1 Early model detent plungers were slightly too short, so the plastic disc could slip out of “run” and back into the “accessory” position, causing the car to stall. Detent plunger 5.9 mm. 2005 MODEL YEAR 7.0 mm. 2007 AND LATER Spring longer and tighter Detent plunger longer Problem 2 The problem was made worse by a key that had a wide slot. A heavy key ring swaying in this slot, or jostled by a knee, could pull the key out of run, into the “accessory” position. FORCE WEIGHT OF KEY RING The Result If the ignition were switched off while the car was in motion, as could happen in the faulty Chevy Cobalts, the main computer controlling the airbags would stop working after one or two seconds. If the car crashed after that period, then the airbags would not deploy. 
 
 Ms. Anderson took a day off work on Thursday to watch Ms. Barra’s remarks on television. “I’m glad they’re taking responsibility,” she said. “They’re saying it was their fault.” 
 
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 But despite the depth and breadth of Mr. Valukas’s critique of the company, some of G.M.’s critics were not satisfied with the report, or with Ms. Barra’s apologies. 
 
 “I’m not sure I can trust G.M. to do a thorough internal investigation of itself,” said Laura Christian, birth mother of Amber Marie Rose, who died in a Cobalt in 2005. “I hope the Department of Justice is able to uncover the entire truth.” 
 
 G.M. still faces investigations by the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and a group of state attorneys general. 
 
 Mr. Blumenthal and other lawmakers are expected to grill Ms. Barra and Mr. Valukas soon at another round of congressional hearings. At two contentious hearings in April, Ms. Barra declined to answer many questions because the internal investigation was still in progress. 
 
 “Without question, she should be back in the witness chair,” Mr. Blumenthal said. 
 
 Even after receiving the report, Ms. Barra was hard-pressed to explain why so many employees failed to resolve a safety issue for so many years. 
 
 While she attributed the delay to a “pattern of incompetence and neglect,” Mr. Valukas went even further. 
 
 “Throughout the entire 11-year odyssey, there was no demonstrated sense of urgency, right to the very end,” he wrote. 
 
 The report is yet another humbling experience for G.M., which five years ago had to file for bankruptcy and receive a $49.5 billion government bailout. 
 
 Now the carmaker, once the pride of industrial America, has admitted that it built unsafe cars that killed people — and did nothing for years to prevent it. 
 
 “We failed these customers,” Ms. Barra said. “We must face up to it and learn from it.” ||||| WARREN, Mich. (AP) — GM CEO Mary Barra says 15 employees have been fired over the company's recent ignition switch recalls. 
 
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 FILE - This Friday, May 16 2014 file photo shows the General Motors logo at the company's world headquarters in Detroit. General Motors plans to release the results of an outside attorney's investigation... (Associated Press) 
 
 Barra made the announcement Thursday as she released an internal investigation into the recall of 2.6 million older small cars for defective ignition switches. 
 
 Barra called the internal investigation into its recent ignition switch recall is "brutally tough and deeply troubling." It took GM more than a decade to report the switch failures, which it blames for 13 deaths. 
 
 In a town hall meeting at GM's suburban Detroit technical center, Barra says attorney Anton Valukas interviewed 230 employees and reviewed 41 million documents to produce the report, which makes recommendations to avoid future safety problems. 
 
 THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. ||||| General Motors CEO Mary Barra appears onstage during a launch event for new Chevrolet cars before the New York Auto Show in New York April 15, 2014. 
 
 WARREN Mich. (Reuters) - General Motors Co on Thursday issued a report detailing how for 11 years it turned a blind eye to an ignition-switch problem linked to at least 13 deaths but largely pinned the blame on what the report described as incompetent lower-level employees, leaving top brass untouched. 
 
 The report, which will be the subject of upcoming congressional hearings, describes shortcomings of GM engineers, including a failure to understand "how the car was built." Meanwhile, according to the 325-page report, the highest levels of the company were not made aware. 
 
 Providing a rare peek into the operations of one of the world's biggest automotive companies, the internal investigation said GM had a long-running corporate culture in which nobody took responsibility for problems. 
 
 The "GM nod" was how CEO Mary Barra described that culture, "when everyone nods in agreement to a proposed plan of action, but then leaves the room and does nothing," the document said. 
 
 In February, GM finally began recalling vehicles for repairs. So far, 2.6 million vehicles have been identified. This recall, coupled with others announced by GM this year, has cost the company about $1.7 billion so far. 
 
 By 2011, three years before the recalls began, outside lawyers were warning GM's in-house counsel that they needed to act, the report said. 
 
 Barra said 15 employees found to have "acted inappropriately" have been fired. She did not name all the individuals, but said more than half of them had been in senior or executive roles. 
 
 During April congressional hearings, Barra was unable to answer many questions, saying the internal investigation would find answers. 
 
 But at Thursday's news conference, she still left some questions unanswered, including why GM redesigned the flawed ignition switch but failed to follow normal procedures of assigning a new part number. That has led some critics to believe someone was covering up the change. 
 
 Barra, who has served as CEO for about five months, said disciplinary action was taken against five others. 
 
 Democratic Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts, who is pushing legislation to clamp down on automaker defects, said of the GM report: "We need more than an accounting of past mistakes" and "an internal investigation alone is not nearly enough to ensure that a decade-long tragedy like this never happens again." 
 
 Since early this year, the Detroit automaker has been enveloped in a scandal over why it took more than a decade to begin recalling low-cost Chevrolet Cobalts, Saturn Ions and other cars with ignition-switch problems that were causing them to stall during operation. 
 
 Because of the engine stalls, air bags failed to deploy during crashes - some of them fatal - and drivers had difficulty operating their vehicles because power steering and brake systems also malfunctioned. 
 
 "As years passed and fatalities mounted, engineers investigating the non-deployments and attempting to understand their cause were neither diligent nor incisive," the GM report said. 
 
 Also infused through the document is the notion that GM engineers misdiagnosed the safety problem by failing to connect dots that would have linked the cars' system failures. 
 
 But at the same time, GM "heard over and over from various quarters, including customers, dealers, the press and their own employees that the car's ignition switch led to moving stalls" but employees "failed to take action or acted too slowly." 
 
 RISING CRASH COUNT 
 
 Some new details also emerged about fatalities related to GM's cars. 
 
 The report said GM had identified 54 frontal-impact crashes, involving the deaths of more than a dozen people, in which air bags did not deploy as a possible result of the faulty ignition switch. 
 
 Only last week, GM raised the count to 47, from 35, and has now raised it again, leading to questions about whether the 13 deaths linked to the defect will grow, as consumer advocates have predicted. 
 
 As expected, Barra also confirmed that GM will soon set up a fund to compensate victims of crashes linked to the faulty ignition switches. 
 
 GM officials told reporters that the number of fatalities related to the part defect may rise but added that Kenneth Feinberg, who is looking into victim compensation, will determine that number. 
 
 Reuters reported on Monday that at least 74 people have died in crashes similar to those GM has linked to the faulty switches, based on an analysis of government data. 
 
 Central to the GM investigation, as well as probes by the U.S. Congress, Department of Justice and other federal and state agencies, is why the automaker did not announce vehicle recalls to fix the problem until this past February. 
 
 GM said its investigation, conducted over 70 days, reviewed 41 million documents and more than 230 people were interviewed. 
 
 CONSUMERS NOT PUNISHING GM 
 
 The move to spare the highest executives from blame drew some sharp criticism. 
 
 “How do you truly fix a culture of carelessness and cover-up without cutting the head off the snake?” said Robert Hilliard, a lawyer for a plaintiff in a lawsuit against GM related to the ignition-switch defect. 
 
 Barra previewed the report at the company's technical center in Warren, Michigan, where she received a standing ovation from an estimated crowd of more than 1,000 employees. She emphasized that GM already has taken steps to beef up its internal safety operations. 
 
 Her remarks were broadcast to GM's 220,000 workers globally. 
 
 Despite all the negative publicity in recent months, GM sales have been robust. 
 
 The Detroit automaker reported this week that U.S. sales in May were up 13 percent compared with a year ago, making for the best total sales since August 2008. 
 
 While Barra noted a pattern of "incompetence and neglect" that she blamed on individuals who failed to "disclose critical pieces of information," she added that there was "no conspiracy by the corporation to cover up facts." 
 
 Furthermore, Barra said the internal investigation "found no evidence that any employee made a trade-off between safety and cost" in failing to deal with the safety problem. 
 
 The full report was made public on Thursday. 
 
 'DEEPLY DISTURBING' REPORT 
 
 With the submission of GM's internal investigation, Congress is expected to announce a new round of hearings soon. Further details on a compensation fund for victims and their families are expected by early August. 
 
 U.S. Representative Fred Upton, who chairs the House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee, said the findings of GM's investigation were "deeply disturbing." 
 
 Upton, of Michigan, added that his committee will continue its investigation with an eye on "what legislative remedies may be necessary.” 
 
 Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said the GM report "seems like the best report money can buy. It absolves upper management, denies deliberate wrongdoing and dismisses corporate culpability." 
 
 The internal report concluded that Barra, executives who reported directly to her, the board of directors and former CEO Dan Akerson did not know about the defective switches before December. 
 
 It also found that GM's general counsel, Michael Millikin, was not responsible for the mishandling of defects and the recall delay. Millikin, who led the internal probe with former U.S. prosecutor Anton Valukas, is still employed by GM, Barra said. 
 
 More than one lawyer in GM’s legal department was fired as part of the 15 employees let go, including senior safety lawyer William Kemp, according to a source familiar with the matter who asked not to be named. A company spokesman declined to identify anyone fired beyond former engineers Ray DeGiorgio, who in 2002 dubbed the flawed part "the switch from hell," and Gary Altman. 
 
 GM's use of Valukas came under withering attack because his law firm, Jenner & Block, has had ties to the company since 2002. 
 
 Blumenthal, a former prosecutor, said those ties "undermine the credibility of this report" and underscored the need for federal investigations to press ahead. 
 
 On May 16, GM was slapped with a $35 million fine for its delayed response to the defect, which is the maximum that can be imposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation. 
 
 Also, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been leveling a $7,000-per-day fine on GM for missing an April 3 deadline for fully responding to the agency's request for information about the ignition switch problem. 
 
 These fines could be dwarfed, however, by potential actions the Justice Department could take. Earlier this year, Toyota Motor Corp was fined $1.2 billion for concealing problems related to sudden acceleration of some of its vehicles. 
 
 The NHTSA said GM's probe appeared to support the agency's findings that company practices "stood in the way of safety at a time when airbags were failing to work properly in millions of GM products." 
 
 (Additional reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit and Marilyn Thompson, Susan Heavey and Karey Van Hall in Washington; Writing by Richard Cowan; editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Matthew Lewis) ||||| General Motors Co. (GM) blamed bureaucratic delays and a culture of incompetence for the botched handling of auto-safety complaints, and Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra ousted 15 employees for their roles in mishandling the recall of millions of fatally flawed vehicles. 
 
 Barra announced the dismissals after the company released the results of an internal investigation into why it took GM more than a decade to identify problems with a defective ignition switch linked to 13 deaths. The probe, led by lawyer Anton Valukas, blamed a lack of urgency in the engineering and legal departments but didn’t reveal any conspiracy to cover up facts. Barra herself was held blameless. 
 
 “This should have never happened,” Barra told about 1,000 employees at GM’s technical center in suburban Detroit. “It is simply unacceptable.” 
 
 The report marks a pivotal moment in Barra’s efforts to change the automaker’s culture after the biggest legal and public-relations challenge since its government-backed bankruptcy in 2009. Still, Congress and the Justice Department continue to investigate GM, and some critics asked whether the Valukas report -- commissioned and paid for by the company -- is sufficiently impartial because it spared the top leadership. 
 
 Source: General Motors, Steve Fecht General Motors Co. Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra speaks during an employee town hall meeting to reveal the findings of the company’s internal investigation into delays around the recall of 2.59 million small cars linked to at least 13 deaths is being telecast to all of the company’s operations around the world, including factories. Close General Motors Co. Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra speaks during an employee town... Read More Close Open Source: General Motors, Steve Fecht General Motors Co. Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra speaks during an employee town hall meeting to reveal the findings of the company’s internal investigation into delays around the recall of 2.59 million small cars linked to at least 13 deaths is being telecast to all of the company’s operations around the world, including factories. 
 
 “I won’t be letting GM leadership, or federal regulators, escape accountability for these tragedies,” said Senator Claire McCaskill, who presided over an April 2 hearing in which Barra declined to answer many specific questions about what happened because the Valukas report wasn’t complete. “The families of those affected deserve no less.” 
 
 More Hearings 
 
 A follow-up hearing will address unanswered questions later this summer, the Missouri Democrat said. 
 
 “I’m going to reserve judgment until I can take a closer look at the report -- which I expect to find comprehensive and thorough -- and I’m looking forward to getting a full briefing from Mr. Valukas,” she said. 
 
 Representative Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican, said he plans to hold another hearing, too. 
 
 GM’s crisis erupted in February with the recall of some vehicles no longer sold, including the Chevrolet Cobalt, that have a defective ignition switch that could be jarred into the “accessory” position, disabling power steering and preventing air bags from deploying. 
 
 The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has already fined GM $35 million, the maximum allowed, after finding systemic problems throughout the organization dealing with the recall. GM has already agreed with NHTSA to wide-ranging changes to how it reviews safety issues and decides on recalls. 
 
 Photographer: Mark Wilson/Getty Images General Motors Company CEO Mary Barra speaks to the media after testifying during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, on April 1, 2014 in Washington, DC. Close General Motors Company CEO Mary Barra speaks to the media after testifying during a... Read More Close Open Photographer: Mark Wilson/Getty Images General Motors Company CEO Mary Barra speaks to the media after testifying during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, on April 1, 2014 in Washington, DC. 
 
 Barra Cleared 
 
 GM’s investigation confirmed Barra’s previous claims that she was previously unaware of the flawed switch. It also cleared GM’s top lawyer, Michael Millikin. Ray DeGiorgio, the engineer in charge of the flawed part, and Gary Altman, a program engineering manager, were ousted, said a person familiar with the matter. Bill Kemp, GM’s top lawyer on recalls, was also dismissed, said another person. 
 
 Barra also announced a compensation program for victims and their families to be administered by Kenneth Feinberg, who ran similar funds for victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the 2010 BP oil spill. GM expects the program to cover the almost 2.6 million vehicles recalled with a potentially defective ignition switch. The program will begin accepting claims on Aug. 1, the company said. 
 
 A quick resolution will allow Barra and her team to capitalize on rebounding profits and the strongest industrywide sales since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. GM slipped 0.7 percent to $36.27 at the close in New York. The shares slid 11 percent this year. 
 
 ‘Deeply Troubling’ 
 
 Valukas’ team interviewed more than 230 witnesses and collected more than 41 million documents. The volume of data was estimated at 23 terabytes, the report said. 
 
 The report found that GM selected a switch that was below the company’s specification and that subsequent engineers tasked with fixing the problem didn’t understand the most fundamental consequences of the failure. It also details numerous missed opportunities over the years to address the issue. 
 
 “From beginning to end, the story of the Cobalt is one of numerous failures leading to tragic results for many,” the Valukas report said. “Throughout the entire 11-year odyssey, there was no demonstrated sense of urgency, right to the very end. The officials overseeing the potential fixes and investigations did not set timetables, and did not demand action.” 
 
 December Delay 
 
 The report even noted that in December last year, GM’s recall committee deferred a decision to recall vehicles for another six weeks in order to gather more information “in part because the presentation provided to them failed to alert them to fatalities.” 
 
 Outside attorneys warned the automaker as early as 2011 that failing to recall Cobalts could become a large liability, the report said. 
 
 Barra said it was “enormously painful to have our shortcomings laid out so vividly” in the Valukas report. Senator Richard Blumenthal, however, called Valukas’s findings “the best report money can buy” and said it “absolves upper management, denies deliberate wrongdoing and dismisses corporate culpability.” 
 
 Lance Cooper, a lawyer for crash victims, said the report can help draw out more details in civil cases. 
 
 “It was disappointing that the emphasis in the remarks was, this was a case of incompetence and neglect, this was negligence on the part of company employees, but then highlighting the fact that she says there was no evidence of a trade-off in safety and cost.” 
 
 Unusual Moves 
 
 The Valukas report couldn’t rule out the effect of the company’s cost-cutting in early 2000s as the automaker headed toward eventual bankruptcy. While the investigation found no evidence that any employee made an “explicit trade-off between safety and cost,” the investigators couldn’t conclude that the atmosphere of cost cutting didn’t play a role. “When belts are tightened, most functions are impacted in some way and we cannot assume that safety was immune,” the report said. 
 
 DeGiorgio, for example, held a position that was given added responsibilities to decrease engineering headcount, the report said. 
 
 “Witnesses stated that the reduction in force created a difficult environment in which people were overworked and the quality of work suffered.” 
 
 Barra noted throughout the day that the report didn’t find evidence that employees made a trade-off between cost and safety. 
 
 Crisis History 
 
 In February, GM recalled 778,562 Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5 sedans in North America. GM subsequently expanded its recalls to the Saturn Ion and other models, covering 2.59 million small cars, including almost a million that were assembled with a better switch that could’ve been replaced with faulty ones. The company had linked 13 deaths and 47 crashes to the issue as recently as May 24. The Valukas report increased the crash total to 54. 
 
 The recalls came less than a year after GM settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the family of 29-year-old Brooke Melton, who died in 2010 when her 2005 Chevy Cobalt lost power in a crash linked to the defective switch. The lawsuit revealed that the faulty part had been changed at some point without the part number being changed. 
 
 Records released in April by the House panel investigating GM show that DeGiorgio signed off on changing the ignition switch in 2006 and didn’t change its part number, effectively hiding the change and making it harder for future engineers to pinpoint the problem. 
 
 Defending Car 
 
 The Valukas investigation found that GM lawyer Kemp had worked to blunt a report of an upcoming Cleveland Plain Dealer story in 2005 about the Chevrolet Cobalt stalling, suggesting they give the columnist a videotape demonstrating the remoteness of the risk of it occurring. Another lawyer responded that she wasn’t optimistic they could come up with something compelling. 
 
 “We can’t stand hearing, after the article is published, that we didn’t do enough to defend a brand new launch,” Kemp wrote in an e-mail timed 5:18 a.m. on June 23, 2005. 
 
 The investigation also found that former CEO Rick Wagoner may have viewed a presentation that included a description of stalling issues with the Cobalt about three weeks before he was ousted by President Barack Obama’s automotive task force. The slide Wagoner may have seen focused exclusively on warranty costs and didn’t characterize the matter as a safety issue, the report said. 
 
 GM, which has already announced about $1.7 billion in charges this year tied to recalls, today said it may see further related costs this quarter. The charges, which could be material, will be “unknown until we have completed our work,” according to slides posted on the automaker’s website. 
 
 Senator Jay Rockefeller, the West Virginia Democrat, expressed admiration that Barra fired 15 people. 
 
 “Not just one or two people, but 15,” he said. “She had to reach down into it.” 
 
 To contact the reporters on this story: Tim Higgins in Warren, Michigan, at thiggins21@bloomberg.net; Jeff Green in Southfield, Michigan, at jgreen16@bloomberg.net; Jeff Plungis in Washington at jplungis@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jamie Butters at jbutters@bloomberg.net Niamh Ring
– General Motors is firing 15 people in connection with its deadly ignition switch scandal, but none of the heads rolling are those of senior executives. CEO Mary Barra today unveiled the results of the company's internal probe, and said that it found no evidence of an intentional cover-up of the defect, or of wrongdoing by the company's senior executives, the New York Times reports. Instead, Barra blamed the failure to report the flaw on bureaucratic issues and individual lower-level employees; she called the report "brutally tough and deeply troubling," notes the AP. Among those being fired are engineer Ray DeGiorgio (more on him here), and program engineering manager Gary Altman, Bloomberg reports. "From start to finish, the Cobalt saga was riddled with tragedy," Barra said. The probe backed up her assertion that she personally was unaware of the flaw until January. Before Barra even spoke some were criticizing the probe for shielding senior executives. "How do you truly fix a culture of carelessness and cover-up without cutting the head off the snake?" one lawyer representing ignition switch victims asked, according to Reuters.