BP will expedite claim payments, U.S. says

[sabra]

Source: MSNBC/AP

Hayward promises to reduce delays amid complaints by businesses

GRAND ISLE, La. - The Obama administration said Thursday that BP has agreed to expedite the payment of claims to businesses and individuals whose livelihoods have been disrupted by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Fishermen, property owners and businesspeople have complained that delays and skimpy payments from BP for damage claims have put them on the verge of financial ruin as the toll of the Gulf of Mexico disaster grows.

Tracy Wareing of the National Incident Command office, told reporters in Washington that the understanding on payment of claims came in a meeting Wednesday with BP executives, including CEO Tony Hayward.

Wareing said administration officials raised a "pressing concern" about the time BP has been taking to provide relief payments, particularly to businesses in the stricken area. She said the company will change the way it processes such claims and will expedite payments. Among other things, it will drop the current practice of waiting to make such payments until businesses have closed their books for each month.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37602151/ns/business-us_business/

[CountAllVotes]

1. yesterday I read that people were lined up for meals

and they were being provided by Catholic Charities. I'm glad they are there but :wtf:

:kick:

[Robbien]

2. Admin Allows BP 90 Days To Process ‘48-Hour’ Claims

Today, the Obama administration announced initial steps to improve oversight of BP’s processing of claims of economic damage caused by the foreign oil giant’s Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. After weeks of growing complaints and a huge backlog of unpaid claims, National Incident Commander Thad Allen met with BP officials and wrote a letter to BP CEO Tony Hayward demanding “access to the BP claims database with personally identifiable information removed.” On Sunday, Hayward lavishly praised his own company’s performance in a BBC interview, saying BP had paid “every claim” by instituting a claims process that takes only “48 hours”:

We’ve taken a claims process that has taken 45 days traditionally in the United States and shortened it to 48 hours. It takes 12 seconds when you phone the BP claims line to be put into the process, be given a number. If you turn up at the claims office, within 48 hours you’re given a cheque.

Hayward’s fantastical 48-hour deadline is not being enforced by the government, however. Instead, unpaid claimants must wait 90 days before the federal government has promised to take action:

Any claim that is denied by BP or not settled within 90 days of submission to BP may be presented to the Coast Guard for relief from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund through the National Pollution Funds Center (NPFC).

The administration should make BP stand behind its CEO’s words, and mandate Hayward’s purported 48-hour turnaround for processing claims. Better yet, the administration could take the Center for American Progress’s suggestion to take over the claims process from this environmental criminal. For fishermen, hotel owners, and other Gulf Coast businesses, a ninety-day wait would be an economic death sentence.

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/06/09/90-vs-2/


Hopefully today's announcement isn't just more such smokescreen.

[JDPriestly]

3. Hayward says this, but what do BP's lawyers say?

How long do you think Hayward will remain in charge once he starts paying claims quickly?

Has Hayward discussed this with his Board of Directors and major shareholders?

I trust this like I trust a slimy snake in the grass.