When independent advice isn't

Tony Byrne of CMS Watch has commented on a story from Wired about a Federal Government lawsuit against Accenture, Sun, and HP. The suit alleges that Accenture defrauded the government of millions of dollars by taking kickbacks and rebates on massive government IT projects.

There's nothing wrong, of course, with Accenture negotiating great deals with HP and Sun and then selling that equipment to the government for a profit--if Accenture was acting as a reseller. But they weren't. They were acting--supposedly--on behalf of the government as it's agent.

Whenever money changes hands, you're not getting independent advice and counsel. Rather you're getting biased advice that is calculated to make the adviser richer, often at your expense. This situation is no different.

Several years ago, when Accenture was Anderson, they couldn't decide if they wanted to be a consulting company or an accounting company. Now, apparently they'd rather be a reseller. I wish they'd make up their minds because you can't be all of them at the same time.