GM boss promises to strengthen internal accounting
Apology issued to shareholder over ‘embarrassing’ errors
General Motors chairman and chief executive officer Rick Wagoner has
apologized to shareholders over the company’s accounting errors, promising to
strengthen internal accounting at the carmaker.
In a letter to shareholders accompanying GM’s 2005 annual report, Wagoner
said: ‘The recent discovery of prior-year accounting errors has been extremely
disappointing and embarrassing to all of us.’
‘The fact is that errors were made, and we can’t change that. What we have
done is disclose our mistakes and work as diligently as we can to fix them.’
GM, which had its credit rating cut to junk bond status by credit rating
agencies last year, posted a loss of $10.6bn (£5.8bn) in 2005, which Wagoner
said was ‘unsustainable’ adding that the company was ‘working diligently to get
things moving in the right direction – quickly’.