Posted on 06/07/2004 11:44:30 AM PDT by NormalGuy
could be worth as much as $10 billion.
The Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday it has picked Accenture as the prime contractor for US-Visit, an IT-based system that will control entry of foreigners into the country. The five-year contract, which could be lengthened to 10 years, could be worth up to $10 billion. Some people questioned whether the U.S. government would award Accenture the contract because it's incorporated in Hamilton, Bermuda. But only a handful of employees are situated there; 25,000 of Accenture's 90,000 workers are based in the United States. Accenture, with operations in 48 countries, says it maintains no corporate headquarters.
The government began to solicit bids in November, with contractors submitting them in January. The US-Visit Program Office led the source selection process, supported closely by department's border-management unit, representatives from other Homeland Security offices, as well as the State and Justice departments.
According to Homeland Security, each proposal was evaluated on four key factors: the business and technical solutions suggested to achieve the vision of US-Visit as an end-to-end management system; the management approach and proven capability to deliver a complex set of solutions; and the development and implementation strategy to deploy US-Visit entry and exit capabilities at the 50 busiest land ports of entry. Cost was also a major factor considered in the award decision.
Asa Hutchinson, Homeland Security's undersecretary of border and transportation security, said in a statement announcing Accenture's selection that the award marks an important milestone in the history of homeland security. "By harnessing the power of the best minds in the private sector, we have taken a major step toward accomplishing our goals of enhancing the security of our country while increasing efficiency at our borders," he said.
Accenture will provide a range of professional services, including strategic support, design and integration activities, technical solutions, deployment activities, training, and organizational change management.
The government's vision of US-Visit is to deploy end-to-end management and sharing of data on foreign nationals covering their interactions with federal officials before they enter the United States, when they enter, while they are here, and when they exit. Hutchinson contends that this comprehensive view of border management will lead to the creation of a virtual border and will set a course for improved processes to manage and share data on foreign nationals.
Since deploying US-Visit entry capabilities at 115 airports and 14 seaports on Jan. 5, more than 4.5 million foreign nationals have been processed without adversely impacting wait times, Homeland Security says, adding that since its launch, US-Visit has helped the government intercept more than 500 people with prior or suspected criminal or immigration violations. These include convicted rapists, drug traffickers, individuals convicted of credit-card fraud, a convicted armed robber, and numerous immigration violators and people using falsified documents.
US-Visit requires that most foreigners traveling to the United States on a visa and arriving at an airport or seaport have their two index fingers scanned and digital photographs taken to verify their identities at the port of entry. By Sept. 30, this process will also apply to visitors traveling under the visa waiver program at all airports and seaports of entry.
249 - "The cry of the true Socialist: "Entrepreneurs are poverty pushers because they seek profits"
Dear POVERTY PUSHER.
Take your property and poverty generating schemes and go. We don't want you here.
253 - "Let's require your grocery store to buy goods and services from you in exactly the same quantity that you spend on groceries. So, if you spend $400 a month for groceries, the grocery store must immediately buy $400 worth of goods and services from you. "
You still don't have a clue do you. You know this won't work, as there is no provision for profit, and there is no provision for other expenditures.
However, modify it slightly, and say the store must buy goods and services from our group, to which we both belong, then yes, it will work, and it will work fine.
Our mutual group (the store and me and others) happens to be America.
What group do you belong to?
To "deprive" you of something is to remove something to which you are entitled because you actually own it.
How much did you pay for your job?
255 - 'Which explains why overtime pay has hit record levels in the past year..."
No, it doesn't. You Mother must have dropped you on your head as a baby.
What it means is, that effectively there is no law governing overtime payment, while most people think there is such a law. But it is in name only.
The reason so for much overtime pay is that in the expanding economy, there is actually a labor shortage, and companies are too cheap to hire new personnel to fulfil the added labor requirements, and in the short term, it is cheaper to put people on overtime, rather than hire new people.
What it really means is there is still a lot of question as to whether the current economic expansion is going to continue.
263 - "How much did you pay for your job?"
A whole hell of a lot more than the Chinaman you wish to give it to. Go live with your group - (countrymen) in China.
I'm sure they will be happy to have you - LOL.
Exactly!
I know people personally that have been made to wear multiple hats, and were given the duties of those laid off in the past three years, they are way over worked, as the companies are just to damn greedy to fill the positions and hire more people. Even in retail the schedules have been cut to the bone and people that use to work a moderate sized store with six employees, are now down to 3 or 4 employees and are left to take up the slack, working much harder. This is what is happening in many areas!
Amazing how you're unwilling to take the conceptual leap from this point.
However, modify it slightly, and say the store must buy goods and services from our group, to which we both belong, then yes, it will work, and it will work fine.
Ah, yes. Exalting the collective over the individual. How "conservative" of you.
Between folks like XBob, the trail lawyers, Jesse Jackson's shakedown racket on the one hand, and the rantings of Lou Dobbs, I can only come to one conclusion:
Only a sucker would want to start a business that would require employees based in the United States of America in this business climate. When the climate gets better, get back to me. Until then, I'll slog along as best I can.
Did you actually defend Stalin?
If everyone is exempt from overtime, then nobody should be getting it.
The reason so for much overtime pay is that in the expanding economy, there is actually a labor shortage, and companies are too cheap to hire new personnel to fulfil the added labor requirements, and in the short term, it is cheaper to put people on overtime, rather than hire new people.
But you're saying that these companies don't HAVE to pay overtime in the first place!
That's not what he asked you.
Please use published heading only.
So what was your final dollar cost for the job that you are claiming ownership of?
Good for them. Makes them more qualified.
"and were given the duties of those laid off in the past three years, they are way over worked"
They have free will. They can move on or stay and perform the job required of them.
"as the companies are just to damn greedy to..."
"Liberal Alert" you dont know why companies do what they do.
"Even in retail the schedules have been cut to the bone and people that use to work a moderate sized store with six employees, are now down to 3 or 4 employees and are left to take up the slack, working much harder. This is what is happening in many areas!"
...and? If they cant hack or it or dont like it they are free to quit. Nobody is making them work.
Do you get the feeling somebody didn't buy Bob a pony?
Are we all gonna die?
How original.
You don't quite understand junior.
You over work your people, and threat them like sh*t, like many employers now do, and it always comes back to ring their bell. Bet the rent.
There are good employers, and there are bad employers. Unfortunately today, there are a lot of employers that treat their employees in a very punitive manner. What comes around goes around.
I felt the same way in the military and remember some with rank were more afraid of their own than the enemy. The AHs had damn good reason to be.
Then you're saying that the problem is self-correcting.
Unfortunately today, there are a lot of employers that treat their employees in a very punitive manner.
From what I've heard in talking to a lot of people in management positions, a LOT of employers have reason--i.e., personal experience with managing Generation Y--for doing so.
Your analysis is incorrect. Generally (absent any specific treaty arrangement), the only way a U.S. corporation can avoid U.S. taxes on income earned overseas is to form an independent subsidiary and never repatriate the income to the U.S. Even then, the IRS has its ways of "attaching" that income to the U.S. if it can prove, for example, that the subsidiary benefits from R&D or other activity done here. Furthermore, the U.S. Foreign Tax Credit applies only to that portion of taxes that are paid to the foreign government, again for example, if the IRS determines a corporation/subsidiary tax liability to be $1500, and that entity paid $500 in foreign tax, then it's still on the hook for $1000. Your opponents' premises remain correct: U.S. corporations pay tax on world-wide income (and we are the only country in the world to insist upon it), and if that tax is to be avoided the corporation must set-up shop in, dare I say, Bermuda or elsewhere.
LOL, from what I've heard a lot of managers have nothing but contempt for the greedy corporate types that sit around all day figuring out how to increase their profits on the backs of the employees. Instead of have respect and loyalty for their companies, many managers have nothing but contempt for them.
What comes around, goes around.
For a "conservative," you sure use a lot of rhetoric that sounds more at home in the Socialist Revolutionary Worker's Party.
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