indexTo repair the health care website the federal government turned to Accenture; the company has been the preferred favorite of corporate America. Unfortunately, it has had a dubious record of past problems and ethical impropriates, a review of its past highlights.

The Washington Post reported the U.S. Postal Service Inspector General’s Office wrote last June that Accenture had “demonstrated an absence of business ethics.”  Continuing reports also recommended the agency cancel $200 million in contracts; citing a 2011 settlement with the Justice Department which Accenture paid $63 million to resolve “kickbacks” and “bid-rigging” by many in the government.  The company denied any of these allegations.  

Last month the Obama administration selected Accenture for the contract to fix the troubled Affordable Care Act website.  The one year contract will cost the federal government $91 million dollars, as this was based on the companies experience and resource in building complex online systems for other federal agencies; example, Census Bureau and the Education Department.

Two questions emerge that are not being asked. First, if the federal government is going to spend an additional $91 million dollars to fix the “Obamacare” website why did they choose a company with a problematic history?

Second, what is the ultimate cost of the Affordable Care website?

Past history has shown Accenture has failed to deliver product it was designed to produce.  Failure by Accenture to provide a product for the University of Michigan, prompted students and faculty to protest the universities use of the company to reduce cost, citing the firms “disturbing pattern of problematic past performance.” 

North Carolina faced similar difficulties when Accenture failed to deliver on a computer system which resulted in a huge backlog for food stamp recipients prompting the federal government to withdraw the state food stamp funding.          

This sort of practice is not only systematic at the federal level you witness the same sort of practice the state level.   Deloitte Consulting produced faulty and failed systems for state governments in Florida, Massachusetts, and California, wasting hundreds of millions of dollars.  Like Ireland-based Accenture, Deloitte is based in the UK. 

It seems odd to me that with all the technical computer software giants in the U.S. and their extensive innovation we need to look to foreign firms to solve our technological problems.

Many of these companies are masters of understanding the nuances of how to maneuver through the government bureaucratic maze of government contracting then they do of providing actual product.

Maybe if the government did its job of properly vetting these companies we would not be wasting tax payer dollars and getting a product and service that works.

I guess that is too much to ask.

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