Wrong. Accenture is an American corporation.
Posted on 06/02/2004 5:19:18 PM PDT by ETERNAL WARMING
NEW YORK TIMES,
June 2, 2004 Accenture Is Awarded U.S. Contract for Borders By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JOHN MARKOFF
WASHINGTON, June 1 - The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday named Accenture as the prime contractor for a multibillion-dollar project aimed at creating a "virtual border" around the country to head off would-be terrorists entering the United States.
Asa Hutchinson, the under secretary in charge of border security, said the project, called U.S.-Visit was "a significant milestone in the history of the department" and in the bolstering of border security since the Sept. 11 attacks. "I really don't think you could overstate the importance of this responsibility in terms of securing our nation," he said.
The project will use the latest technology, including biometrics, to identify people coming into the United States. The contract was awarded to Accenture, formerly Andersen Consulting, over two competing contractors, Lockheed Martin and Computer Sciences. Several industry executives and analysts said that the award surprised them and that Accenture had widely been considered the outside candidate.
The award also brought controversy. Accenture is incorporated in Bermuda, and some critics attacked the idea of awarding a contract so valuable and important to national security to a company with its headquarters outside the United States.
After Accenture was named, Representative Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat, suggested the company took advantage of an uneven playing field to win the contract over Lockheed Martin and Computer Sciences.
"If companies truly want to contribute to our nation's security, they can pay their fair share of taxes. If they want a slice of the American pie, they had better help bake it," he said in a statement.
A spokesman for Accenture said that the company paid United States taxes.
Representative Richard E. Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat and a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, also questioned the award.
"This decision is outrageous," he said, in a statement. "The Bush administration has awarded the largest homeland security contract in history to a company that has given up its U.S. citizenship and moved to Bermuda. The inconsistency is breathtaking."
But homeland security officials said they were satisfied that Accenture, which has an operation in Reston, Va., with 25,000 employees, meets the legal requirements for an American-based company. The three bidders "were all U.S. companies," Mr. Hutchinson said.
The bid proposal set a range of $10 million to $10 billion over the 10-year life of the project. Mr. Hutchinson said the project was "certainly going to be a billion-dollar project when all is said and done."
Investigators at the General Accounting Office, however, have called the program "a very risky endeavor" because of management and financial concerns. They have estimated that the total cost, including financing needed from other agencies, could reach $15 billion.
Mr. Hutchinson said he was unperturbed by the findings.
"I would've been frustrated if they'd said it was not a risky endeavor," he said. "I could've told you that from Day 1."
Homeland security officials said that Accenture, in its bid proposal, provided an estimated cost of $72 million for two initial phases of the project, including the securing of the nation's 50 busiest land ports by the end of the year. Citing legal restrictions, officials would not disclose whether that represented the lowest bid. Other factors, including the companies' business and technical strategies and their experience were also considered, officials said.
Part of the challenge of the U.S.-Visit project will be integrating at least 19 large government databases, and that was a factor in the choice of Accenture, said T. Jeff Vining, an intelligence and law enforcement analyst at Gartner, the research firm.
"The government is basically soliciting on-the-fly R.& D.," he said, referring to research and development. Accenture also had the strongest team of subcontractors with international reach, he added.
Cindy Shaw, a financial analyst at Schwab SoundView Capital Markets, said the company had a successful track record with the Transportation Security Agency.
"One of the things that got lost in this whole competition is that Accenture helped T.S.A. put together its airport screening process," Ms. Shaw said. "They showed well under pressure there."
The project manager for the Accenture team said the company would take a similar approach to a contract it holds with the Pentagon's Defense Logistics Agency in deploying the U.S.-Visit system.
"We view this as a business transformation and we're talking about changing business processes," said Eric Stange, Accenture's program manager for the project. "We're looking at the human dimension as well as the technology dimension."
Mr. Stange said that in its work with the Defense Logistics Agency, Accenture had altered job descriptions and employee deployment. He said the border security project was similar in size and scale to the Pentagon contract. He refused, however, to make specific estimates either about the number of federal employees who would be involved or the number of Accenture employees who would take part.
The Department of Homeland Security has talked about using digital fingerprint and photographic information to help ensure identity. Mr. Stange, however, said that Accenture was continuing to evaluate other potential biometric techniques for accurate identity checks.
"Part of our approach is to continually assess technology innovations," Mr. Stange said. "For a 10-year contract that's a generation or two of technology, and biometrics is a very hot area."
The contract is for five years, with one-year options for five years after that.
Accenture's stock rose 75 cents on the news, to close at $25.36. Asked about what appeared to be a rise in the company's stock before the markets opened Tuesday, Mr. Hutchinson said he was unaware of any leak that might have driven up the stock but that the department would investigate. Wall Street analysts said, however, that there had been "chatter" about the award to Accenture before the market opened.
It is not an American corporation. Also, they are a major exporter of American jobs on US soil.
Wrong. Accenture is an American corporation.
Anderson Associates--the auditing firm--handled Enron's books. Anderson Consulting was a different branch.
It's Andersen.
Ya, ya, you betcha, shoulda caught the Scandinavian spelling of the name...
Yup. Facts require thought. Being outraged merely requires one to jerk the knee...
Different branch huh?
Ok,
Believe whatever you wish.
Accenture was already a separate entity from AA.
"Quit punishing businesses for hiring Americans and being based in America, and they won't put their headquarters in Bermuda."
Let them move off shore for tax reasons if they want. They shouldn't get gov't contracts if the do though.
Can you say CAFTA?
It was conveniently signed this week.
Watch. They swarm to this like flies to doggie-doo. It's typical.
The only thing that they have in Bermuda is a mail drop.
The company is otherwise in America.
But if I'm reading you correctly, they should be required, as a precondition of bidding on government contracts with their attendant paperwork, is to pay enough in taxes that they could very well lose money on the privilege.
As it is, most consulting firms call working for the government "pro bono work."
I guess being outraged is more important than the facts, right?
Hey that's politics don'cha know? Load an American company down with tax regulations and beat them to death over their foreign profits, then complain when they move they head quarters to where those profits are treated more equitably.
There is a fix for that however, wonder if the complainers will ever catch on?
Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee,
Rep. Bill Archer (R-TX) - August 12, 1996
- "A recent survey was done, in Europe and Japan, of the major corporations and I was astounded at the results. They were asked, 'If the US abolished its income tax and went to a sales tax, would that have any impact on your decisions?' Eighty percent of the corporations said they would build their factories in the United States of America. Twenty percent said they would move their international headquarters to the United States of America."
Repeal all income & payroll taxes on American businesses, then charge imports the same retail sales tax as you do domestic products for the first time in nearly one hundred years. Exports go out tax free, imports get hit with the full freight they escape from under the current income/payroll tax system.
What attracted you?
No, we can't have that. You see, if foreign companies relocated their headquarters here, then workers like me who are employed by these foreign companies will be lambasted on this site just for working for the foreign company. Nevermind the facts that this foreign company that I work for has both its R&D and manufacturing base right here in DFW, TX.
They're foreign, you see.
Your mama, that's who.
We will all be speaking Bermudan and wearing ugly colorful shirts within a generation.
Why don't people get it? First, Clinton sells us out to the Communist Chinese, now Bush is exposing us to the Bermudan Menace.
Such class.
Sounds like a run around govt. red tape and democrats 'over sight'. Maybe even union thugs. It sounds like their safe from leftist 'help', which is okay by me. I notice in the article dems are the only ones screaming about it.
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