In Gulf Oil Spill - Though Government Trustee Of BP Oil Fund Is Behind He Is Not Being Attacked Like BP Was For Slow Payments

Feinberg, a month into job, acknowledges he oversold program speed, transparency

The independent paymaster overseeing BP oil spill claims admits that he oversold the speed and transparency of the program he took over a month ago, but his office still promises to make businesses whole.

Critics have charged payments have been slow in coming, and often for just pennies on the dollar, and that people have had difficulty getting information on their claims.

But Kenneth Feinberg, administrator of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, told NBC News Thursday that his office is quickly catching up on payments to people who show they lost money due to the April oil spill.

In the first month of its program, the Gulf Coast Claims Facility says it’s paid 26,572 claims more than $349,271,301.

"We are being much more generous than BP," Feinberg said. "This will be a very generous program."

"We're working 24 hours a day, seven days a week in three shifts," he said. "We're doing now about 1,500 claims a day. I think that we're rapidly gaining the high ground now."