Telecom carries away 2007 Roger Award

Telecom has outstripped the competition to take the 2007 Roger Award for what the organisers judge is the worst transnational company in New Zealand.

Judges at the annual award ceremony in Christchurch last night said the eight nominees for the top prize all had one thing in common _ brazen ``public relations claims unsupported or contradicted by the evidence''.

Organised by the Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (Cafca), the award is presented to any corpor ation that is 25 per cent or more foreign-controlled and is judged to have the most negative effect on economic matters, people and the environment.

Judges included former Cabinet minister and National Distribution Union national secretary Laila Harre and former All Black Anton Oliver.

Telecom won the award for the second time. The other contenders for the crown were Glaxo Smith Kline, Pike River Coal, ANZ, APN News and Media, Independent Liquor, Spotless and British American Tobacco (BAT).

In their report, the judges said Telecom ended up dragging the chain after a good start to 2007.

There had been problems with its Xtra internet service provider, the ``ob scene'' $5.4 million final payout to de parting chief executive Theresa Gattung and the scrapping of concession for non-government organisations and of the school connection scheme.

Judges said the revelation from two Auckland schoolgirls that Glaxo Smith Kline's Ribena fell short of the amount of vitamin C it was said to have was the best scandal of 2007.

- © Fairfax NZ News