Business Ethics: BP Oil Spill - Case Study Example

What BP had originally claimed would be a spill with “minimal impact”. (Malik, 2010). This spill was the most severe to have occurred in the USA. As the world goes about its duties to date, the well has been noted to continue leaking at the rate of averagely 3,000,000 liters on a daily basis. It is unfortunate that the BP spokesman Tom Muller, has denied scientists to set up some devices, which will measure the oil spill accurately as it is estimated that the oils flow is much higher than the liters suggested earlier.

He excused his decision by saying that this will only hinder all the efforts put in place to correct the predicament. He termed the measuring of the oil spill as irrelevant to the whole process of correcting this problem. His decision did not go down well with experts for they have to know some facts before they can do the necessary adjustments. It is unfortunate that even the press was not allowed to access the site so as to educate the public on the happenings on the ground. The New York Times reported that one of the reporters was almost put under arrest by the police in the USA.

He was trying to access the site illegally. The government is not doing much to intervene on this issue. Its silence may mean something positive, but considering the fact that the USA values transparency in its administrative efforts, it would have been a valid measure to ease the tension of its citizens. Denying its citizens access to information the US government, violated their rights to information. Was BP right when it denied US citizens right to information on what was happening in their environment?

BP was doing this to maintain its selling name at the expense the safety of the nation. It would have been ethical for BP to work in collaboration with other engineers and scientists in keeping the problem in check. The government should have intervened to make sure that the