WASHINGTON — Seven weeks after the Treasury Department announced that it was ousting General Motors chief executive Richard Wagoner in the federal bailout of the company, he is still technically on GM’s payroll.
Wagoner’s removal has been held up because senior Treasury officials have yet to decide whether he should get $20 million in severance that GM promised him.
The delay is one of many hitches that have slowed important policy actions in the four months since Timothy Geith ner became Treasury secretary. Although Geithner has taken dramatic steps to address flash points in the economy, the work of carrying out those policies has bogged down because critical decisions about how to do so aren’t being made, interviews with a broad range of federal officials show.
Government officials, inside the Treasury and out, say the unresolved issues are piling up in part because of vacancies in the department’s top ranks.
But some of the officials also cite the Treasury’s ad-hoc management, which is dominated by a small band of Geithner’s counselors who coordinate rescue initiatives but lack formal authority to make decisions.
Heavy involvement by the White House in Treasury affairs has further muddied the picture of who is responsible for key issues, the officials add.
Geithner said in interviews that some of the department’s internal difficulties result from intense pressure on officials to develop a raft of rescue initiatives in a short time.
Some lawmakers and government officials said Geithner needs to be a stronger manager.
