The second annual CPA-Zicklin Index of Corporate Political Accountability and Disclosure was released yesterday by the Center for Political Accountability in conjunction with the Carol and Lawrence Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
The 2012 CPA-Zicklin Index ranks companies based on 25 indicators related to political spending disclosure, policies, and compliance and oversight. While the 2011 CPA-Zicklin Index focused on companies in the S&P 100, the 2012 CPA-Zicklin Index examined the top 200 companies in the S&P 500 Index (based on market capitalization) minus four companies that were recently acquired or only operate outside of the United States.
Highlights of the 2012 CPA-Zicklin Index’s findings include:
- Of 88 companies studied for the second year in a row, 85% improved their overall scores for political disclosure and accountability, with most of the changes occurring in the categories relating to adopting or disclosing policy, spending disclosure practices and/or board oversight of political spending.
- Of the 196 companies studied this year, 47% made some disclosure of their direct political spending and 11% said their policy is not to engage in such political spending. In addition, 36% made some disclosure of their payments to trade associations, while 5% said they asked trade associations not to use their payments for political purposes.
- The 2012 CPA-Zicklin Index, which includes individual company rankings and more information on their methodology, is available at http://politicalaccountability.net/ht/a/GetDocumentAction/i/6903.