WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - A US congressional committee on Friday said there were "failures within the system"over the handling of flawed ignition switches in General Motors vehicles, which have been linked to 13 deaths.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton said that initial documents provided to his panel revealed those failures. Upton also said that there was "much left to examine"in its ongoing investigation of the recalls, which came more than a decade after the company first noticed a problem.

According to one document obtained by the committee, GM CEO Mary Barra, who rose to the top position in January, received an email in 2011 pointing to steering problems in GM models that later were recalled.