The Center for Corporate Policy is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest organization working to curb corporate abuses and make corporations publicly accountable.



Current Issues



* Stop the War Profiteers. Recent revelations about kickbacks, cost overruns and shoddy reconstruction suggest the need for stronger Congressional oversight over the reconstruction of Iraq. In addition to measures that ensure greater competition, accountability and transparency, companies that avoid paying their fair share in taxes or have a history of violations of law should be deemed ineligible for taxpayer-funded contracts. The privatization of Iraqi-owned businesses may be illegal under international law and should not be allowed to move forward until a sovereign government is established.



*Crack Down on Corporate Crime. After Enron and other scandals, there is still much that should be done to crack down on corporate crime. The federal government should use its purchasing power to bar corporate criminals from eligibility for government contracts. Payments and settlements for violations of the law should not be tax deductible. The FBI should establish an on-line corporate crime database and produce an annual report on corporate crime, the same way it reports on street crime, which costs far less. In addition, the loopholes in Sarbanes-Oxley that allow auditing firms to continue tax and other kinds of consulting for the same clients should be closed.



* Reign in CEO Greed. As Warren Buffett describes it, CEO pay continues to be the "acid test" of corporate reform. Although shareholder activism has curbed executive excess at some companies, studies suggest CEO pay is still hundreds of times higher than the take-home pay of average workers. Efforts to set reasonable standards for executive compensation have been proposed for some time by Peter Drucker and other management experts.