[bc-gnso] ICANN posts *redacted* Form 990 for year ending June 30, 2008

[George Kirikos <icann@xxxxxxxx>]

Hi folks,

ICANN has posted their latest IRS Form 990 for the year ending June
30, 2008, see:

http://www.icann.org/en/financials/tax/us/fy-2008-form-990.pdf

however it is highly redacted (page 10 shows a date of May 14, 2009,
so it must have been posted recently). In particular, note page 43 of
the PDF does not give the individual compensation, instead saying:

"Compensation, employee benefit and expense account information
redacted for, confidentiality."

However, according to Guidestar:

http://www.guidestar.org/DisplayArticle.do?articleId=865#1

"Organizations that do not wish to provide hard copies of these
document(s) do have another option: they can post a copy on their Web
site. With the exception of masking donor's names and addresses on
Forms 990, 990-EZ, and 990-PF, the documents must not be altered in
any way."

Obviously redacting the employee compensation information is going
beyond what Guidestar says is allowed.

The law is that anyone can ask for a copy of the unredacted versions:

http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=96430,00.html
http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=139231,00.html

"In general, exempt organizations must make available for public
inspection certain annual returns and applications for exemption, and
must provide copies of such returns and applications to individuals
who request them.  Copies usually must be provided immediately in the
case of in-person requests, and within 30 days in the case of written
requests.  The tax-exempt organization may charge a reasonable copying
fee plus actual postage, if any."

I have sent a request to Kevin Wilson for the full unredacted form
with ALL schedules unredacted. It's going to show up eventually anyway
at Guidestar, so I don't understand why ICANN is playing these games,
when they are supposed to be "transparent" and "accountable."

If anyone passes by the ICANN offices in-person, please do make the
request, as they must provide an unredacted copy immediately.

Some compensation numbers did get through unredacted (pages 35 through
39), namely:

1) Douglas Brent (COO) $390,939 ($99,412 contribution to employee benefit plans)
2) John Jeffrey (General Counsel) $314,500 ($63,982 contribution to
employee benefit plans)
3) Paul Levins (VP), $263,946 ($84,110 contribution to employee
benefit plans, and $48,359 expense account and other allowances)
4) Kurt Pritz (SVP), $318,846 ($79,627 contribution to employee benefit plans)
5) Paul Twomey (CEO), $691,610 ($255,649 contribution to employee benefit plans)
6) Kevin Wilson (CFO), $153,310 ($50,198 contribution to employee benefit plans)

(some of the above might not be for a full 12 months)

Page 43 reveals Amy Stathos, Theresa Swinehart, David Conrad, Denise
Michel and Daniel Halloran combined for a total of $1,094,308, with
$278,826 as contributions to employee benefit plans and $115,649 for
expense accounts.

Page 44 reveals Jones Day pulled in $1.6 million for legal services,
the Ombudsman's corporation pulled in $437K, Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti
pulled in $240K, Gibson Dunn Crutcher got $140K and Clayton Utz got
$128K.

Page 45 reveals The Wentworth Company got $589K, Interisle got $395K,
Project Management Solutions got $338K, Iron Mountain got $327K, and
Crown IT got $309K.

Page 11 reveals that 54 other employees were paid over $50,000.

For comparison with other years, see our previous post last year at:

http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/ga-200709/msg02021.html

In my opinion, these salaries (and contracting expenses too!) are far
too high for a non-profit entity. Compensation should reflect
non-profit comparables, as I've argued before at:

http://www.circleid.com/posts/20090105_icann_for_profit_companies_comparables/

Relevant comparables could be found for people working similar jobs at
the USPTO, NTIA, DOC, DOJ, universities, hospitals and other
organizations of that nature, with their inherent job security
compared to the for-profit sector of the economy.

Sincerely,

George Kirikos
http://www.leap.com/