The Center for Public Integrity, with the help of some archival Wal-Mart video, shows how the company came up with a way to build its PAC, which can’t be funded with corporate contributions. Management employees were encouraged to contribute to the PAC by a promise of Wal-Mart Foundation matching money for an in-house charity that pays for critical needs of employees. The Center’s link includes video of the felonious Tom Coughlin explaining the “clever” plan to fellow managers.
Wal-Mart Watch (see jump) says the report illustrates whose interests the company holds paramount. Not the little guy, else the PAC wouldn’t have been lobbying against legislation to help them. The company charity, meanwhile, reached only a tiny number of company employees.