Even if GM does not admit it, we all know that its poor management led General Motors down the path to bankruptcy. But President Obama’s auto task force was shocked with the kind of mismanagement they have seen in Detroit. The auto task force is responsible for the restructuring and bankruptcy efforts at GM and Chrysler.

Steve Rattner spoke to Fortune Magazine for the first time and told the magazine how bad the situation was when the task force arrived. . “Everyone knew Detroit’s reputation for insular, slow-moving cultures. Even by that low standard, I was shocked by the stunningly poor management that we found, particularly at GM,” Rattner said.

Rattner added that GM had the “weakest finance operation any of us had ever seen in a major company”, the same thing with Chrysler.

Although the downfall of GM was years in the making, Rattner put a significant chunk of the blame on former GM CEO Rick Wagoner, saying he “set a tone of friendly arrogance that seemed to permeate the organization.”