DDD52

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


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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>.


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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.


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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.


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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."


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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."


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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.


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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


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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.corp-research.org