The honeymoon didn't last long concerning government oil claims czar Kenneth Feinberg, who is administering the claims portion of the BP (NYSE:BP) compensation fund. As a matter of fact, the honeymoon didn't even get started before the criticism started coming in.
All the really happened was the griping against BP simply transferred to Feinberg, with the same old complaints being aired.
Of course part of this is Feinberg's fault for listening to the original complaints and assuming there was something wrong with what BP was doing.
So he made all sorts of promises which raised the bar, and some are saying the new management makes them want to go back to how BP was running it.
But when you consider the mortgage fiasco run by the government where very similar claims of bureaucratic nightmares, delays, and claimants not properly filling out their paperwork, and you have the same situation here.
Add to that all the cons they're trying to protect the process from, and you see what they're up against, and I think the problem is there really is not way to make it happen quicker without throwing out checks and balances and allowing anybody to get their claims approved.
That's not going to happen. So people and businesses are stuck with having to go through the long process, which they thought was going to be streamlined and go much quicker.
Another problem is the nature of people themselves. If we were granted access to the claims being made, we would probably see a plethora of assertions which all have to be checked out before being confirmed. And if that's the case with even a small percentage, it would cause problems for all the honest people and businesses only trying to get back what they lost.
Again, Feinberg probably raised the bar far too high and promised more than he was able to deliver, creating the growing resentment and anger over the fund and the process.
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