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.
They are not being put in charge of our security.
They are building the system that my coworkers and I will use to screen aliens.
>>>"There is an assurance that all this work will be done here and, of course, all the taxes will be paid here as well. In its second quarter filing, Accenture, I should note, paid 35 percent of its earnings in taxes to the United States from its United States operations."
Here's how it could work: 80% of contract goes to India for "R&D licensing" and the rest is U.S. labor with taxes on the revenues - R&D licensing - US labor.
So their "35% tax" on "US operations" would end up a sly Clinton verbal trick.
Many corporations move their earnings offshore using similar tricks. I wonder if Accenture would do the same?
Why can't we spend this money to keep out the millions of illegals each year?
Hoppy
Accenture - one of bill & hillary's most infamous anti-freedom rip off companies! Now under a new name (same ownership) registered in Bermuda so they pay NO U.S.A. TAXES AT ALL!!!!!!!!!
This is the company that leads the pack on your 'voting machines' - their list of clients is a who's-who of the worlds left-most organizations!
Look them up.
You have got to be kidding!!!!
I notice in the article dems are the only ones screaming about it.
Only because it's an election year. On this issue, it's all of government against the American workers.
"Now under a new name (same ownership) registered in Bermuda so they pay NO U.S.A. TAXES AT ALL!!!!!!!!! "
That is not true. All corporations registered to do business in the United States pay income tax on their income earned in the United States. The purpose for incorporating in Bermuda is to avoid paying U.S. income tax on earnings from foreign operations. This would not be necessary if U.S. corporate tax rates were lowered to rates competitive with our foreign competitors.
Second, Accenture is a services company, and its greatest expense is compensation for its employees. Those employees are mostly American citizens who pay U.S. income tax, FICA and other payroll taxes.
It reminds me of he decline and fall of Usenet. We are collecting ever-larger numbers of people who don't know anything, and don't care to find out. As rdb3 put it, they don't care for facts that get in the way of the outrage.
rdb3: Did you check out the reply five minutes previous to yours? [chuckle]
More like different corporate entity. And that's not my "belief," but a "fact."
Ain't that the truth. My personal favorite is, "I cannot prove it, but I know it's true . . . look it up yourself."
Hmmmm some choice; China or Bermuda; China or Bermuda.... I guess I'll take Bermuda so long as I don't have to wear the shorts and black socks.
I think what they mean is using technology to identify people coming into the US through Ports of Entry, completely forgetting about the thousands who sneak in without presenting themselves for inspection...kinda like bailing a boat with a 2 foot hole in it with a 1 foot bucket....
All incentives for illegal immigration need to be taken away and violaters punished, that would stop a whole lot more unidentified people from coming into the US for less money....They seize all profits and proceeds from drug smugglers and sellers, why not seize all the assets from those that broke the law to get into the US ? What's the difference? Why reward people for breaking the law when they should be punished? No more free medical care, welfare, drivers licenses, public schools etc...disparate treatment....Both types of people are just trying to earn a living...LOL...
This being the Internet doesn't help. My personal favorites in this regard are a poster who claimed that Walt Whitman was gay, on the basis that a Google search of walt+whitman+gay turned-up thousands of hits. I discovered that one of Whitman's biographers had the surname Gay. After I pointed that out, he dug deeper and found a grad student's term paper claiming the same.
Or the time some other bloke, when challenged, "found" a Power-Point presentation, AND CITED IT AS A SOURCE.
Just this morning, I nailed some "scholar" citing to an abstract of an article otherwise unavailable on the Web, that HE ADMITTED TO NOT HAVING READ.
In the hand of a feeble mind, Google is dangerous.
I cannot let this pass. Please tell us what CAFTA has to do with this story. It's been a long day, and I need a good laugh.
It is not a crime to not know something, but some people act like it is a crime to admit it. As far as I'm concerned, I'm here to learn stuff, not run my mouth. That's why I don't post much anymore unless the subject is airplanes, the military or war strategy. I even get those wrong on occasion. There is another thread where some genius is calling Bush a 'weak fool' of all things, for leaving a word out of a speech, as though Bush would have used the word, had the Freeper only called him up and told him what to do. I think sometimes we forget who we are, and that the president might not need our help ALL the time in order to get it right.
You really don't know what you're talking about.
They were entirely different companies by the time of Enron. The consulting practice paid about $1 billion just to get the divorce, which was a bargain since the accounting firm was demanding $14 billion.
They were not only not affiliated with each other, they were bitter bitter enemies.
I hope you are right.
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