CICTAR carries out detailed, accurate and accessible research into the tax and financial arrangements of multinational corporations. We bring together forensic financial research with deep roots in the global labour, social and economic justice movements to provide the tools, evidence and ammunition to challenge corporate power.
By shining a spotlight on corporate abuse and exposing the impact of tax avoidance, we work collectively to reform global rules and restore the balance of power in favour of workers and their communities.
Health and Care
Care is a fundamental human right. Well-funded healthcare systems and comprehensive care for the vulnerable is essential for an equitable and civilised society. CICTAR investigates corporations and venture capital that are encroaching into health and care around the world. We seek to expose where profit is being put before human health and dignity.
Research on Health and Care
Ownership structure of adult care home services in Cymru: trends and future implications
Report arguing for an urgent shift to public ownership of Aotearoa New Zealand’s ambulance services
TRANSPARENCY AND CORPORATE TAX REFORMS TO IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCY OF AGED RESIDENTIAL CARE FUNDING IN NEW ZEALAND
CPPIB, the board that invests on behalf of more than 22 million contributors and beneficiaries of Canada’s public pension fund, was the dominant shareholder in Paris-based Orpea for a decade and lost over C$500 million dollars when it exited. CPPIB claims to be a responsible long-term investor and has a strong set of guiding principles with high ethical standards. But this debacle reveals serious shortcomings in the CPPIB’s governance and conduct, and invites questions about its broader investment approach. The collapse of Orpea was a seismic event in France, sending shockwaves through the long-term care sector across Europe. In Canada, however, it caused barely a tremor.
This report explains in detail the crisis that unfolded at Orpea and the failure of CPPIB to adequately oversee and intervene in one of its largest global investments
This is the first in a series of reports of reports to examine the role of ‘development’ finance and profit-seeking investments in Kenya’s health care sector. Multinational corporations win government contracts – no questions asked – while Kenya’s health care unions have been forced to strike to demand adequate funding for training, placement, and retention of front-line workers. Much of Kenya’s limited health budget is shifted away from direct provision of health care and towards medical equipment of questionable value. Health workers – doctors, clinical officers, laboratory staff, nurses, and others – are key to improving health care in Kenya. This report is a case study of VAMED, an Austrian multinational corporation which has sold European medical equipment, financed by ‘development’ agencies and international banks, to the Kenyan Ministry of Health and governments across the Global South. This case study reveals a major lack of transparency and accountability in Kenya’s health care spending and recommends urgent reforms.
This report looks at the expanding role of profit-seeking private sector actors in Norwegian
kindergartens. It focuses on a number of recent corporate deals that appear to have enabled
significant profit extraction for the owners of corporate kindergarten chains.
Big Tech
The rise of big tech represents an unprecedented concentration of wealth and power. Many of these firms are creating monopolies whilst capturing an increasing share of government contracts. Tax avoidance appears rife among many of the sector’s biggest players, robbing the public purse and increasing wealth inequality. These corporations exercise massive influence in our political systems and this power needs to be checked.
Research on Big Tech
Fossil Fuels and Extractives
Climate chaos is the greatest crisis facing humankind. Fossil fuel companies, and other extractive multinationals, are regularly accused of abusing labour rights, destroying local environments and dodging their taxes in the very countries from which they extract resources. CICTAR’s work with our partners exposing tax dodging and financial secrecy by polluters is essential to building climate justice.
Research on Fossil Fuels and Extractives
New report looking at the disastrous impacts of privatisation in Pakistan’s generation sector.
Dwindling gas supplies have largely been blamed for surging electricity prices in the dry winter of 2024. Here we look at what has been excluded from that discussion: the failure of NZ’s electricity industry to invest in sufficient renewable generation, and the role of New Zealand’s biggest gas user, Canadian methanol producer Methanex NZ.
This report examines how, since the sale of a majority stake to the global asset management company, Brookfield the Colombian energy company ISAGEN has reduced investments, increased profits, and appears to have shifted profits offshore, resulting in lower tax patments and reduced investment in the companys workforce.
Changing the Rules
CICTAR works with partners to help change global tax rules to increase financial transparency and make multinationals pay their fair share. We campaign with unions and civil society organisations at national and global level for key reforms. We also work with investors, especially union-linked pension funds, to pressure companies to alter their behaviour and build momentum for wider change.
Our Campaigning
This report reveals a global pattern of tax aggressive behaviour by Coca-Cola, which penalises governments worldwide and benefits billionaire investors.
The report specifically analyses the case of Brazil, based on new tax incentives data made available by the Brazilian Tax Revenue Agency, and draws parallels with similar cases around the world.
Resources
CICTAR trains union members and staff on how to untangle the tax and financial arrangements of multinationals. This is another way we ensure our work supports workers’ struggles against corporate power. If you would like CICTAR to deliver training to your union, please get in touch.
Resources for unions and campaigners
A pamphlet developed by CICTAR partner, the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) to inform their membership of the risks and impacts of Private Equity finance in the healthcare sector
A briefing note designed to provide workers with a guide to identify possible corporate profit shifting practices. Works as a stand-alone guide and resource for training.
To help make ATO data more accessible for everyone, CICTAR worked in collaboration with Tax Justice Network – Australia, and researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Business School to create a new tool that pulls together the full 10 years of corporate tax data.