Accenture is mapping government officials, their relationships and “social styles”, sharing it within the tech services firm to prepare bids for lucrative government contracts.
The firm — which has landed hundreds of contracts worth a combined $2.7 billion in the last decade, but been a major part of several recent failed tech projects — conceded to “power mapping” this week.
It said the information is restricted within the firm, but declined to provide a real example to the Senate, while rivals KPMG, Deloitte, EY, Boston Consulting Group McKinsey and the embattled PwC denied using the practice altogether.
In response to questions from the Senate’s current inquiry into consulting services, Accenture said its power maps typically include public servants’ reporting relationships inside their organisation; social styles, such as ‘analytical’ or being a ‘driver’; and the organisations’ view of Accenture.
The maps can also include Accenture partners, external advisors and competitors, and are typically housed in CRM software Salesforce.
The power maps are updated as required and access is only provided “on a need-to-know basis”, Accenture’s Peter Burns told the inquiry in a written response.
“Power maps are used as part of a tendering process to determine how we may assist a client to effect change within their organisation, particularly in relation to understanding the outcomes the client is seeking to achieve and ensuring we can provide appropriate solutions,” he wrote.
Accenture said it had not breached probity rules around approaching officials who are part of the tender decision making process, despite mapping their roles and relationships.
The company declined to provide the inquiry with requested copies of its power maps, including those which had references to senior public servants or been viewed by Accenture’s own senior leaders.
Accenture said it would be impractical to provide all power maps and told the Senate it does “not store this information on an ongoing basis and access is restricted and can only be accessed by individuals on a need-to-know basis”.
At its last in-person appearance at the inquiry, Accenture sought to distance itself from large consulting firms and the procurement scandals that have dogged Canberra.
“We as an organisation work with the public service, not the political level,” Accenture’s public service lead said last month after confirming he had met with but rejected the approach of a firm embroiled in an ongoing lobbying scandal.
Earlier this week, the government stepped in to stop a major upgrade of the country’s business registers that Accenture was delivering after an independent review found it would cost five times its initial budget.
Accenture was being paid more than $70,000 a day – almost $200 million in total — for the project after being brought in for high-level design work under a $3 million contract.
Home Affairs had to abandon a separate permissions capability platform late last year after Accenture struggled to deliver an agreed base capability on time.
