Dirt Diggers Digest No. 54
July 21, 2004
Editor: Philip Mattera
1. SEC decides to make comment letters freely available to the public
2. Greenpeace maps ExxonMobil ties to climate-change naysayers
3. Choicepoint swallows Rapsheets.com
4. Analysis of board composition and corporate fraud
5. New online source for CRS reports
6. WashTech report on offshore outsourcing by state governments
7. Research/campaign Job Openings: UE and Sierra Club [omitted from web archive]
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1. SEC decides to make comment letters freely available to the public
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced recently that it will
provide full public access to the comment letters sent by agency staffers
to companies about questionable items in corporate filings. Until now
the comment letters (and responses from companies) had to be obtained
through a FOIA request. Beginning August 1, comment letters and responses
will be available through the EDGAR system on the SEC site and via
commercial services. The SEC release on the subject can be found at
www.sec.gov/news/press/2004-89.htm.
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2. Greenpeace maps ExxonMobil ties to climate-change naysayers
Greenpeace has introduced a new website that uses animated social-networking
displays to document the ties between ExxonMobil and the corporate-funded
think tanks and researchers who strive to downplay the significance of climate
change--and thus the culpability of the oil industry. The site, called Exxon
Secrets <www.exxonsecrets.org>, is described as the first chapter of a
Greenpeace effort to create "a research database of information on the corporate
funded anti-environmental movement." The information on the site builds on the work
of the Clearinghouse on Advocacy and Environmental Research <www.clearproject.org>.
Note that Exxon Secrets requires the installation of Flash 7 Player. Thanks to
Charlie Cray and Casey Harrell for alerting us to the site.
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3. ChoicePoint swallows Rapsheets.com
ChoicePoint Inc., the powerhouse in the public records industry, is growing even
larger. It recently announced the acquisition of Investigation Technologies LLC,
which operates Rapsheets Criminal Records <www.rapsheets.com>, a service
for businesses and individuals. Among ChoicePoint's other holdings is
Database Technologies, which is infamous for its role in 2000 in helping
Florida officials improperly remove thousands of people from the voting rolls.
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4. Analysis of board composition and corporate fraud
Tyson Slocum has brought our attention to a new study of the relationship
between the composition of boards of directors and the incidence of fraud
among corporations. The analysis, published in the May/June 2004 issue of
the Financial Analysts Journal, found that boards with a greater proportion of
independent directors are less likely to be accused of fraud. An abstract of the
article can be found at www.aimrpubs.org/faj/issues/v60n3/abs/f0600033a.html.
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5. New online source for CRS reports
There is a new development in the ongoing tug of war over public access
to Congressional Research Service reports. Despite the desire of Congress
to keep these valuable documents to itself, another effort is being made to
build a publicly available online repository. This latest effort is being carried out
by the Thurgood Marshall Law Library at the University of Maryland. See:
www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/ElectronicResources/crsreports/crsreports.asp?AlphaStart=ALL
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6. WashTech report on offshore outsourcing by state governments
The Washington Alliance of Technology Workers (WashTech), an affiliate
of the Communication Workers of America, has released a report on the
offshore outsourcing of public work by state governments. The report, titled
YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK...OFFSHORE, was prepared for WashTech
by Dirt Diggers editor Phil Mattera in his capacity as director of the Corporate
Research Project of Good Jobs First. The report includes profiles of 18 offshore
outsourcing firms (mostly from India) that are targeting the state government
market. The profiles include some financial data and lists of the firms' private
sector clients in the United States. The report can be found at <www.washtech.org>
or <www.goodjobsfirst.org>.
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A cumulative list of resources featured in the
Dirt Diggers Digest can be found on the web at:
http://www.corp-research.org/dirt_diggers_index.htm
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Philip Mattera
Research Director & Director of the Corporate Research Project
Good Jobs First
pmattera@goodjobsfirst.org
www.goodjobsfirst.org
www.corp-research.org