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There have
been several corresponding stories mostly through the internet about potential
for election fraud and/or companies who engage in this work with conflict of
interest ties. - KWC Offshore Company Captures Online Military Vote
By Lynn Landes, published Friday, July 18, 2003 by Common Dreams.org Last year, while
President Bush marshaled U.S. forces for the invasion of Iraq, the patriots at
the Department of Defense awarded the contract for a new online voting system
for the military... to an offshore company. It gets worse. Secure Electronic
Registration and Voting Experiment (SERVE) is the system and Accenture
(formerly Anderson Consulting of Enron bankruptcy fame) is the company. And
although Accenture has not been officially implicated in the Enron scandal,
they have created a reputation of their own that is already raising eyebrows. This is hot off the
newswire -- 7/15/03 "NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Accenture Ltd., the former Andersen Consulting, disclosed Tuesday that it might have
violated the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Chairman and CEO Joe Forehand,
on an earnings call with analysts and reporters Tuesday, said the consulting
firm's Middle East operations could be in non-compliance with the Act, which
prohibits the bribery of foreign government officials by U.S. persons." The Canada-based
Polaris Institute published a scathing report on Accenture, saying,
"Accenture's efforts in government outsourcing have often been very expensive
and/or of poor quality. There is good reason to question Accenture's track
record in outsourcing of government services." Accenture is the leading offshore
beneficiary of government contracts whose main business is the privatization of
government services, according to Lee Drutman of Citizen Works, a non-profit founded by Ralph Nader. Accenture has a troubling track record, a close business
relationship with Dick Cheney's Halliburton, and 2500 partners - more than half
are not U.S. citizens.
Since
2001 Accenture and Election.com have been strategic
partners "to jointly deliver comprehensive election solutions to
governments worldwide," according to their press
release. Last month Accenture bought the public-sector election assets of
Election.com, which suffered its own scandal this year when it was discovered
that Osan Ltd, a firm of Saudi and other
foreign investors, bought controlling interest in
it. According to Mark Harrington of NewsDay.com, "Several shareholders of
the company said they were surprised by the recent buyout and have asked for
securities regulators to investigate." http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0718-05.htm |
