Bermuda based company to replace TX state workers

[rainbow4321]

Bermuda based as in tax haven...also a history of repuke donations.

http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/metro/stories/11/13rally.html

Banging on pots and pans, blowing whistles and wielding buzzing alarm clocks, about 60 state workers from throughout Texas marched outside the Governor's Mansion at 8 a.m. Saturday. Their mission: wake up Gov. Rick Perry.

The marchers, members of the Texas State Employees Union, chanted, "Don't replace face-to-face" in protest of a state effort to replace some customer service centers where Texans apply for food stamps and health benefits with call centers managed by private companies.

State officials estimate that the five-year, $899 million call center contract with Accenture Ltd. will save the state $646 million over five years; members of the employees' union said they doubt there will be any savings at all.

The state auditor reported last month that privatization of payroll and human resources jobs at the Health and Human Services Commission had not saved any of the $21.7 million projected.

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http://www.livejournal.com/users/iocaste/477966.html

Accenture Ltd., the company once criticized on Capitol Hill for moving its headquarters to Bermuda to avoid U.S. taxes, is nearing a major lobbying score to ensure that the company doesn't have to pay a hefty tax bill in the U.S. -- a matter that the company's lobbyists thought they had settled last year.

Senior congressional tax writers plan to make a tiny change to tax law that will ensure that the consulting company doesn't have to pay a tax bill in the U.S. that could run into the tens of millions of dollars annually.

The technical-corrections bill has grown complicated because the international tax bill it seeks to "correct" was drafted quickly to comply with a World Trade Organization ruling that an export-trade tax break violated trade treaties. When work began on the technical-corrections bill, tax writers on Capitol Hill were deluged with hundreds of requests. About two dozen provisions are expected to make it into the final legislation.

The Accenture provision is causing the most controversy. At issue is the company's decision to move its headquarters to Hamilton, Bermuda, from Chicago in 2001. Bermuda has no corporate income tax and corporate-friendly courts.


http://www.washingtontechnology.com/top-100/2004/24.html

http://www.washingtontechnology.com/contributors/2004/9.html

[ananda]

1. Ouch!

It just keeps gettin worse.

[texpatriot2004]

2. Perry goes against the State Auditor and the facts then

The state auditor reported last month that privatization of payroll and human resources jobs at the Health and Human Services Commission had not saved any of the $21.7 million projected.

[MidwestTransplant]

3. Silly workers....it's not about saving money

it's about lining the pockets of campaign contributers. How about if Accenture put in a guarantee as to savings with them agreeing to reimburse the state for any saving shortfall? Somehow I doubt they would go for that.

[rainbow4321]

4. A hefty Pentagon contract also in the company history

$239 million in 2003

http://www.publicintegrity.org/pns/db.aspx?act=cinfo&coid=010850857