When Dave (not his real name) decided early last year that his bosses at BP'S Alaskan subsidiary were not taking his concerns about the impact of staff cuts on the maintenance of the oil giant's Alaskan pipelines sufficiently seriously, he and two colleagues went and blew the whistle outside BP. They found a ready audience among environmentalists keen to spike BP'S ambition to drill for oil in the nearby Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The complaints of the BP three led to questions in Congress, a letter to President George Bush giving warning of a "major catastrophe", and an inquiry instigated by BP. The inquiry team's report, leaked in November, found that "many workers" at BP'S Alaskan subsidiary (whose self-proclaimed goals are: "no accident, no harm to people and no damage to the environment") believe that "reductions in staffing, training and budget are making field operations less safe." In response to the inquiry, BP has transferred a senior manager, Tom Gray, to implement the report's recommendations. The company says that it has also already taken on additional staff to clear the maintenance backlog.
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