Controversies
Rotterdam welfare risk score system
In 2017, Accenture developed for Rotterdam a risk score system for the 30,000 inhabitant benefiting from welfare. In 2023, Wired and Lighthouse Reports reported that the algorithm was discriminating based on ethnicity and gender, and found "fundamental flaws that made the system both inaccurate and unfair", concluding that "it performs little better than random selection", while ingesting 315 data points like the length of the last romantic relationship, gender and age.
Incorporation in a tax haven
In October 2002, the Congressional General Accounting Office (GAO) identified Accenture as one of four publicly traded federal contractors that were incorporated in a tax haven. The other three, unlike Accenture, were incorporated in the United States before they re-incorporated in a tax haven, thereby lowering their US taxes. Critics such as former CNN journalist Lou Dobbs, reported Accenture's decision to incorporate in Bermuda was a US tax avoidance ploy, because they viewed Accenture as having been a US-based company. The GAO itself did not characterise Accenture as having been a US-based company; it stated that "prior to incorporating in Bermuda, Accenture was operating as a series of related partnerships and corporations under the control of its partners through the mechanism of contracts with a Swiss coordinating entity."
In 2009 Accenture shifted its incorporation to Ireland.
UK NHS contracts
Accenture engaged in an IT overhaul project for the British National Health Service (NHS) in 2003, making headlines when it withdrew from the contract in 2006 over disputes related to delays and cost overruns. The government of the United Kingdom ultimately abandoned the project five years later for the same reasons.
In 2018-2019, NHS Digital awarded multiple contracts for a total a £33 millions to Accenture, 15% of its total operating budget of £218 millions, as well as 20% in 2019-2020, despite two members of the NHS Digital board being previously employed by the company and still holding shares at the time. Matthew Swindells, Deputy Chief Executive of the NHS until 2019 was hired by Accenture immediately after his resignation.
False Claims Act Allegations
In September 2011, Accenture agreed to pay the United States $63.675 millions to resolve allegations brought to light by two whistleblowers that it "received kickbacks for its recommendations of hardware and software to the government, fraudulently inflated prices and rigged bids in connection with federal information technology contracts".
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US immigration
In June 2018, Accenture was asked to recruit 7,500 U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. Under the $297 million contract, Accenture had been charging the US Government nearly $40,000 per hire, which was more than the annual salary of the average officer. According to a report published by the DHS Office of Inspector General in December 2018, Accenture had been paid $13.6M through the first ten months of the contract. They had hired two agents against a contract goal of 7,500 hires over five years. The report was issued as a 'management alert', indicating an issue requiring immediate attention, stating that "Accenture has already taken longer to deploy and delivered less capability than promised". The contract was terminated in 2019.
Working conditions
In February 2019, contractors from Accenture's Austin, Texas, location who performed content moderation tasks for Facebook wrote an open letter to Facebook describing poor working conditions and a "Big Brother environment" that included restricted work breaks and strict non-disclosure agreements. A counselor in the Austin office stated that the content moderators could develop post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the work, which included evaluating videos and images containing graphic violence, hate speech, animal abuse, and child abuse. Accenture issued a statement saying the company offers opportunities for moderators to advance, increase their wages, and provide input "to help shape their experience".
In February 2025, Vice News spoke to a former Accenture employee under the condition of anonymity. His project on the WhatsApp team for Meta required him to sift through images and decide whether or not they depicted child sexual abuse, which he coped with "through a lot of substance abuse". The former employee claimed to have witnessed multiple missed opportunities to protect children, and alleged that one colleague had previously been arrested for possessing child abuse materials. In a statement, Accenture said they are "committed to helping companies keep their platforms safe through services such as content, advertising, and compliance reviews".
Tax practices
In the UK, in 2009, 2010 and 2011, Accenture UK, a key provider of IT services for Britain's HMRC, was reported to have respectively paid 2%, 4.3% and 3.5% in corporation taxes.
In February 2019, Accenture paid $200 million to Swiss authorities over tax claims related to transfer pricing arrangements.
Data breach
In August 2021, Accenture confirmed a data breach resulting from a ransomware attack, which reportedly led to the theft of approximately six terabytes of data.
In September 2026, Accenture reportedly failed to implement a security patch that led to the breach of multiple FBI-related services by the criminal hacker group ShinyHunters.
Employment practices
In March 2023, Accenture announced plans to eliminate 19,000 jobs of the 738,000 employees over 18 months, citing reduced revenue forecasts.
In February 2025, Accenture made significant changes to its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, including the discontinuation of global employee representation goals and specific demographic-focused career development programs. The company also paused participation in external diversity benchmarking surveys and reevaluated their external partnerships. According to media analysis, this was to comply with President Trump's Executive Order 14151 to avoid losing billions of dollars of work with US federal agencies.
