Dirt Diggers Digest No. 52
May 17, 2004
Editor: Philip Mattera
1. Keeping tabs on offshore outsourcing
2. Effort to counter the political influence of drugmakers
3. Sarbanes-Oxley and corporate research
4. Survey of freedom of information around the world
5. OECD corporate governance principles promote disclosure
6. Finding special issues of trade publications
7. Guide to reading 990s
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Keeping tabs on offshore outsourcing
TechsUnite, a project of the Communications Workers of
America and groups such as the Washington Alliance of
Technology Workers, has created a new web research tool
called Offshore Tracker <http://www.techsunite.org/offshore/>.
The Tracker allows one to search by company name for info
on the movement of jobs offshore. The site has more detail than
the widely discussed website compiled by CNN's Lou Dobbs show
<http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/>, which
is a simple list of company names.
For more on offshoring, see the website of the Washington
Alliance of Technology Workers (WashTech) at www.washtech.org.
Other useful compilations of material on the subject have been
put together by the National Conference of States Legislatures
<http://www.ncsl.org/standcomm/scecon/offshorepage1.htm>, the
South Asian Journalists Association <http://www.saja.org/outsourcing.html>
and the Center for American Progress
<http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=39058>.
Dirt Diggers editor Phil Mattera has devoted two issues of the
Corporate Research E-Letter to the subject: an overview last fall
<http://www.corp-research.org/oct03.htm> and a recent look at
the role of U.S. venture capital firms in bankrolling offshore operators
<http://www.corp-research.org/apr04.htm>.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Effort to counter the political influence of drugmakers
Elections Not Auctions <http://www.electionsnotauctions.org/> is
the title of a website created by the Corporations, Health Care and
Democracy Initiative, an effort to counteract the stranglehold that
the big pharmaceutical companies seem to have on healthcare
policy. The site includes information on shareholder initiatives,
including the texts of proxy resolutions and lists of institutional
shareholders.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Sarbanes-Oxley and corporate research
"For corporate researchers, Sarbanes-Oxley is the silver lining in the
bubble-bursting blitz of corporate scandals that hit U.S. markets in 2001
and 2002." So begins an article by Janet Hartmann in the May/June 2004
issue of the magazine ONLINE. (Unfortunately, the piece is not posed on
the publication's website and has not yet been posted on Nexis.) Hartmann
notes that among the results of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act are: great improvement
in the quality and availability of insider trading disclosures, a requirement
that companies put key SEC filings on their website promptly and that they
include their code of ethics as an exhibit in the 10-K and put it on the web.
The article also includes an assessment of the web pages of 35 companies
in terms of how easy it is to find Sarbanes-Oxley required elements.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Survey of freedom of information around the world
The website Freedominfo.org has released an updated edition of its
report that surveys the state of freedom of information around the world
<http://www.freedominfo.org/survey/global_survey2004.pdf>. Edited by
David Banisar, the report notes that more than 50 countries have now
adopted freedom of information policies. The section on the United States
notes that "the Bush Administration has engaged in a general policy of
restricting access to information."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. OECD corporate governance principles promote disclosure
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, whose 30
member nations include the world's leading industrial countries, recently
approved a revised set of recommended corporate governance standards,
including provisions on disclosure <http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/32/18/31557724.pdf>.
Among the subjects on which it is said disclosure should occur are "issues
regarding employees and other stakeholders."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Finding special issues of trade publications
Trade magazines often contain useful features such as lists of the largest
companies in a particular industry, salary surveys, buyers guide, etc.
The printed reference books that tracked these special issues are now
out of date, but there is now a website that has taken up the task. Special
Issues <http://www.specialissues.com/> tracks more than 3,000 publications.
The drawback is that the full service is by subscription only, but the website
provides at no charge the List of Lists that used to be maintained by Gary
Price. This feature <http://www.specialissues.com/lol/> appears not to be
kept up to date, but it may have what you need.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Guide to reading 990s
The following item was submitted by Ed Ramthun:
The Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York website now includes
"Form 990: A Detailed Examination" by Peter Swords. This is an expanded
version (125 pp.) of NPCC's shorter essay "How to Read the IRS Form 990 &
Find out What it Means," and it "offers detailed suggestions on how to read
the IRS Form 990 so that one can make useful judgments about the organization
whose Form 990 is being read."
Link: http://www.npccny.org/More_990/990.htm
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
------------------------------------
Philip Mattera
Research Director & Director of the Corporate Research Project
Good Jobs First