The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has recently acknowledged its own role in the delayed recall for the defective GM ignition switches.

Recently, several models of GM’s vehicles were subject to a recall due to defective ignition switches that would suddenly turn off while a consumer was driving, stall the engine, and disable the airbags. This led to over a hundred deaths and several hundred more reported accidents and injuries.

Two internal reports recently released by the U.S. Transportation Department cited several failings of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in investigating the defective switches.

While the reports placed blame squarely on GM for the defects, they bluntly stated several mistakes made by the department throughout their investigation. Based on the reports, agency members failed to notice clues that the GM cars were defective, and failed to exercise the necessary authority to hold GM accountable.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx acknowledged on Friday that the automobile safety investigative process had room for improvement. Many members of Congress supported the agency’s blunt reports, as they felt an overhaul of the Transportation Agency was long overdue.

In response to these reports, the federal agency is revising its procedures for investigating accident reports and automobile safety data. The Transportation Department has brought in outside assistance to oversee the policies and procedures being put into place.

The federal agency also recently brought in a new administrator, Mark R. Rosekind, who has initiated an aggressive stance towards investigating safety reports and requires faster responses from automobile manufacturers.

According to the new administrator, the GM recall scandal changed the culture of the transportation agency. The 2014 recall affected a record number of cars in the United States.

Government investigators claim they will now be more skeptical about the safety data they are provided by automobile companies, and that the agency will trust but verify all the information they receive from car manufacturers.

GM was recently required to pay a $35 million fine to the federal government for its prolonged failure to initiate a car recall even after several engineers, lawyers, and specialists had become aware of the faulty ignition switch problem.

Aside from several other potential criminal charges facing the company, multiple civil GM lawsuits and GM class action lawsuits have been brought against GM by consumers who were allegedly injured by the defective vehicles.

The ignition defect has been linked to over 300 deaths nationwide. GM created a $550 million ignition compensation fund to support victims of the defective ignition switch.