Illinois State Board of Investment to vote against all Wal Mart directors
31 May 2012
The Illinois State Board of Investment is set to vote against all 16 members of Wal-Mart Stores' board following the report last month of alleged bribery at the company's Mexican subsidiary.
The votes would be tallied by the Bentonville, Ark-based retailer in its board election at its annual shareholder meeting on Friday.
William Atwood, executive director of the state investment board said the situation in Mexico showed a real lack of oversight on part of the board of directors in terms of management's compliance with Wal-Mart's own standards and policies.
Atwood, who can direct the voting of the retirement system, said he made the decision after he polled its board. He said he rarely changed how the board voted its shares.
He added what was particularly troubling was that in 2005, the New York State and Local Retirement System and other institutional investors met with the chairman of Wal-Mart's audit committee and asked that they appoint an independent auditor. He said they were not able to comply then and committed these infractions in Mexico paying hundreds of million in bribes that caused extreme harm to the company. He said given this, they would vote against the board of directors.
The investment board has under its management $11.5 billion in pension assets of the General Assembly Retirement System, the Judges' Retirement System of Illinois and the State Employees' Retirement System of Illinois.
