Pentagon Axes $5.1 Billion in IT and Consulting Contracts With Accenture, Deloitte
- Reference: 0176999483
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/04/11/0712244/pentagon-axes-51-billion-in-it-and-consulting-contracts-with-accenture-deloitte
- Source link:
A Department of Defense memo indicates the cuts target the Defense Health Agency's consulting services contract and the Air Force's agreement with Accenture to "re-sell third-party Enterprise Cloud IT Services," services the government can " [2]already fulfill directly with existing procurement resources ."
The terminations also include 11 other contracts supporting "non-essential" activities like DEI programs, climate initiatives, and COVID-19 response efforts. The cuts represent $5.1 billion in spending and will yield nearly $4 billion in savings, according to Hegseth. The funds will be redirected toward "critical priorities to Revive the Warrior Ethos, Rebuild the Military, and Reestablish Deterrence," with Hegseth noting the money would better serve "healthcare for our warfighters and their families, instead of $500 an hour business process consultant."
[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pentagon-terminate-51-billion-it-contracts-with-accenture-deloitte-others-2025-04-11/
[2] https://www.yahoo.com/news/pentagon-just-killed-5-1-015956256.html
Good (Score:3, Interesting)
They should have been the first ones to go, though.
Re: (Score:2)
Agreed.
Though, they will need to hire *someone* to do these tasks. Seems like that is forbidden under the current climate though.
Re: (Score:1)
Why? Had they replaced the procurement department with consultants? If not, they have people to do it already.
Re:Good (Score:4, Informative)
Consultants like that are more for implementation, you can pay for software from Microsoft or ServiceNow with your procurement department but it doesn't actually work until an analyst or admin maps the processes and infra and networking set it up, dev integrates it, and someone trains the staff. Sure you can do that internally but if you're not continually setting up new systems then some of those folks rotate out, which is why they tend to work for consultant firms that keep them employed somewhere that is implementing new systems.
Re: Good (Score:2)
Having worked in the federal govt at the highest levels, I can tell you that using a contractor for procurement is much easier and cheaper than using internal or existing contracts. This is how you hear stories about the govt buying a $20k screwdriver.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Completely agree.
These contracts are not only wasteful, Accenture and others are some of the worst offenders of H1B abuse. It makes zero sense to pay for them to bring replacements for US citizens or lawful permanent residents.
Not to mention the security implications of having an organization with transitory foreign nationals to handle pentagon contracts.
This is two birds with a single stone.
Re:Good (Score:4, Insightful)
> These contracts are not only wasteful, Accenture and others are some of the worst offenders of H1B abuse. It makes zero sense to pay for them to bring replacements for US citizens or lawful permanent residents. Not to mention the security implications of having an organization with transitory foreign nationals to handle pentagon contracts.
In general, DoD requires everyone on a contract to have a security clearance, and H1Bs are not eligible for one. It's one of the few segments in IT where you're not directly at constant risk of being replaced by an H1B. But now you can get DOGE'd.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I can't speak to these directly, so no comment as to whether this is good or bad, other than to say if these projects cease, what else is impacted?
However, I do work for a government contractor, and work on a government project. My project is designed to save money in the long run - but in the short term, it's all cost. It's also not 'obvious', in so much as it's not attached to any particularly recognisable programme or "thing". As such, it's the sort of thing that might get cut if my government is looking
Re: (Score:3)
Think there's two things tied together causing some mixed feelings.
On the one hand, they are taking an axe to all sorts of endeavors that either have value we want or like you say, saves money over a long haul.
On the other hand, at least Deloitte is pretty damn useless in all my private sector encounters with them, so to see them lose business it just feels like a "nothing of value was lost" scenario. I haven't dealt with Accenture at all, but for whatever reason I've hit some Deloitte projects and I was al
Re: (Score:3)
> I haven't dealt with Accenture at all, but for whatever reason I've hit some Deloitte projects and I was always left wondering how they were retaining their contract.
Interesting, my reaction was exactly the opposite: I don't know about Deloitte, but getting rid of Accenture is surely a benefit.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm glad you are 100% sure these things are not needed, because otherwise it would seem like a very effective way to weaken the US military.
Re: (Score:2)
I came to the comment section to see whether Slashdotters hated Trump or consulting companies more and I think I've found my answer.
Re: (Score:2)
Dont if tRump gives cut to get the Elon contracts in.
Re: (Score:1)
> Not cut Elon musk is going to get the contracts.
And? Do you have proof that he would do it worse and/or more expensive? Here, let me give you a little hint.
NASA vs. SpaceX. Compare ingenuity, technology, and efficiency, and cost.
Thats what I fucking thought.
Re: (Score:2)
SpaceX is not in competition with NASA, they do completely different things.
Obeisance (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, I guess we know who didn't bend the knee, kiss the ring, flatter the ego, kiss the ass, nod enthusiastically, and say "how high?!" this week.
Re: (Score:1)
Or, we know who refused the bribes. Military procurement has been infamously corrupt for a long time. Maybe Hegseth rejected the offer of a job with BAH after leaving office.
Re:Obeisance (Score:4, Insightful)
> Well, I guess we know who didn't bend the knee, kiss the ring, flatter the ego, kiss the ass, nod enthusiastically, and say "how high?!" this week.
You. Fuckin'. People.
DoD does something that is undeniably good , something you would have cheered heartily at any other time, and now it's a conspiracy. Because Trump .
FFS. Get some help. Seriously.
Re: (Score:2)
"something that is undeniably good, "
A stopped clock is correct twice a day; that doesn't mean it is an effective timepiece.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, it's deniable , because you don't know, I don't know - none of us knows - the actual ramifications of these contracts. They were implemented originally for some reason, and Congress approved the funding. Over the years, has the reason changed? Why didn't someone in the DoD suggest we get rid of them before now? Did Congress ever suggest we didn't need them? If no one did, were the original contract needs met? Do you have proof?
This action is as unsupportable as cutting Medicaid: no one can walk i
Re: (Score:1)
"undeniably good". I take you think you know a lot about the state of the Defense Department IT systems. Guess what? They are a nightmare. An huge organization that is supposed to be increasingly nimble needs system support. In retail ignoring this is a death sentence. All this warfighting talk. Wars are won through logistics and technology. Money should be allocated appropriately. Maybe this is appropriate, we'll never know. Taking action for sound bites and to suck up to the orange boss is clear failure t
Re: (Score:2)
>> Well, I guess we know who didn't bend the knee, kiss the ring, flatter the ego, kiss the ass, nod enthusiastically, and say "how high?!" this week.
> You. Fuckin'. People.
> DoD does something that is undeniably good , something you would have cheered heartily at any other time, and now it's a conspiracy. Because Trump .
> FFS. Get some help. Seriously.
Undeinably good?
Hahahahahahahahha, thats a good one...
Wait... you actually bevel that? And you're complaining about other people?
These contracts will be reinstated once the ring has been kissed and the appropriate "gratuities" have been paid... Happens all the time in developing countries when the government changes, contracts get cancelled until money changes hands. You. Fuckin'. People. voted for this.
Re: (Score:1)
Hear Hear Brother!
For a site with so many intelligent people, the TDS runs deep.
Amalrician budget management (Score:2)
Can I invent the term "Amalrician budget management"
Named after Arnaud Amalric, the military commander of a Crusade, who when asked how they would know which people were christian and should be saved and which were muslim and should be killed, said:
"Kill them all, let god decide"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caedite_eos._Novit_enim_Dominus_qui_sunt_eius.
Re: (Score:2)
Ah, direct from the Elmo School of Stupid Management Policy. Good luck running a company.
Re: (Score:2)
In this case you're killing your own army, so the analogy doesn't work.
You can say here the army you're killing had no value, but that's the opposite of your kill-them-all-without-evaluation concept.
Remember lads, we hated then *last* week (Score:2, Insightful)
But this week we hate Hegseth more. So we love Booz Allen and think they've always done a bang-up job.
Re: (Score:2)
No, no. Bitches gotta bitch.
Race to the Bottom. (Score:2)
> But this week we hate Hegseth more. So we love Booz Allen and think they've always done a bang-up job.
Show me a stupid population that perpetually puts up Bad vs. Worse arguments when selecting leaders, and I’ll show you an ignorant population too stupid to realize that is nothing but a race to the bottom.
I would say Democrats should have tried harder, but that would assume they actually intended to win the last election instead of cashing out on it. Failure by design. For profit.
Re: (Score:2)
> But this week we hate Hegseth more. So we love Booz Allen and think they've always done a bang-up job.
It's like cheering when a big IBM mainframe contract is cancelled.
The CEO hired some 19 year old tech bros (69GorillaBallz69, waifu82765, timr, wanksterator) to rewrite 50 million lines of COBOL, 20TB of DB2, and an Indiana Jones warehouse full of tape backups in Rust, cocaine, and a nosql you never heard of. The first sprint goal is "www.ssa.gov" and their whiteboard has several rust/wasm options listed right now, but they'll settle on two of them by COB and shoot it out.
It's OK to hate both for very diffe
About time... (Score:5, Insightful)
These firms have been feeding at the government trough for decades. I have zero problem with reigning in shoveling money down the toilet to fund perpetual engagements with these companies.
Re: (Score:3)
Agreed. I used to be a gov contractor. The amount they paid me, vs what they billed the gov for my time, was insane. like 1:10 ratio.
better to just have the gov hire them directly as feds, and save money.
Re:About time... (Score:4, Informative)
Not just public sector, those companies impose absurd overhead to private sector too. A no-benefit hourly contractor with no paid leave will commonly only get a 33% pre-tax cut of their billing rate under one of these companies. Then those companies will gleefully turn around and tell the employees there's just no money in the budget for raises, even when they bump up the billing rate. However they immediately make the employees eat a rate cut if they happen.
The good news is that if there's a good worker stuck under one of these regimes, it's *easy* to poach them because they obviously have no idea about their market value.
Re: (Score:2)
I worked on a government contract where my team was responsible for everything from gathering the requirements to installing the software and everything in between. One time we had a project wide meeting, and there were three times as many people there as the number on my team. And I had no idea what any of them did. Whatever it was, it had zero affect on the end product, but they were still paid for it.
Re: (Score:2)
Yup. All commercial companies getting payouts from the government should have their contracts nulled out and be forced to justify why they are being paid each and every penny.
um... (Score:2, Informative)
"with Hegseth noting the money would better serve "healthcare for our warfighters and their families, instead of $500 an hour business process consultant.""
And yet they're cutting how many people who provide those services?
or is just the VA? So they can promise people they'll get medical for life if the serve our country, then renege in that promise?
Re: (Score:2)
And yet they're cutting how many people who provide those services?
Yes, they are cutting VA staffing and services. First they plant to get rid of [1]up to 80,000 staff within VA [apnews.com], and they're getting rid of a program which helps veterans [2]not lose their homes [npr.org].
This is on top of the Russian asset calling veterans who get wounded or die [3]suckers [nbcnews.com] and [4]losers [thehill.com].
[1] https://apnews.com/article/veterans-affairs-cuts-doge-musk-trump-f587a6bc3db6a460e9c357592e165712
[2] https://www.npr.org/2025/04/03/nx-s1-5351768/trumps-va-is-ending-a-rescue-program-thats-saved-17-000-military-veterans-homes
[3] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/john-kelly-confirms-trump-privately-disparaged-us-service-members-vete-rcna118543
[4] https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/4744762-did-trump-actually-call-veterans-who-died-in-wars-suckers/
Re: (Score:2)
> And yet they're cutting how many people who provide those services?
> Yes, they are cutting VA staffing and services. First they plant to get rid of [1]up to 80,000 staff within VA [apnews.com], and they're getting rid of a program which helps veterans [2]not lose their homes [npr.org].
Maybe you should read that NPR article to understand why they are ending that program. As for the AP article, it says they are trying to get back to the 400,000 employee level of 2019. That's a lot of employees and I would guess they have lots of contractors too. I don't know how they justified growing by 80,000 employees in 5 years to begin with.
[1] https://apnews.com/article/veterans-affairs-cuts-doge-musk-trump-f587a6bc3db6a460e9c357592e165712
[2] https://www.npr.org/2025/04/03/nx-s1-5351768/trumps-va-is-ending-a-rescue-program-thats-saved-17-000-military-veterans-homes
Re: (Score:2)
We were active in wars where a lot more people survived with serious wounds than in past. We have gotten very good at stabilizing people in the field and getting them to medical facilities. So we have a higher percentage of damaged people who need help. We had a rough period where there wasn't enough help for the initially wounded. But their health problems need maintenance for lifetimes, and those number only increase until we have a prolonged period of peace -- so long that people die of old age. The
Not that I have any love for either company (Score:2, Troll)
But this is most likely because the contracts are going to be shifted to Elon Musk. One of the main things Musk is doing is firing people and shutting down departments so that he can privatize them. His businesses would collapse without the government and he knows that so he's put himself in a position where he can just hand himself government contracts.
And we literally have a president that did a cryptocurrency rug pulls. It's also stupidly obvious he and his buddies did the largest inside of trading
On a similar note... (Score:2)
How in the world hasn't viasat been ripped completely out of the government yet? Starlink can do everything viasat does better and would cost pennies on the dollar compared to their contracts. I'm not a huge fan of Elon these days, but viasat is just complete garbage.
Destructive (Score:4, Interesting)
While I'm all for reducing military spending,.
given DOGE prior history, I'm going to bet that these cuts will be more destructive than anything and will actually cost more than the money saved.
Since DOGE cuts without any real analysis, instead cutting based on gut reactions and ideological goals more than actually wanting to ferret out waste.
Zero Chance (Score:2, Troll)
GOP already hates the VA, little chance they actually spend it on on the troops.
Re: (Score:2)
On some levels I agree. I have worked with some really bad H-1B folks being run by these consulting companies. But I have also worked with some who were awesome. The H-1B process is incredibly exploitative, and resembles indentured servitude.
The right solution here is to make popping someone talented out of H-1B easy for an outsider who spots quality (because the consulting firms won't do it of course), so talented folks get stripped out of these companies and turned into real Americans, as opposed to li
Audit the Pentagon (Score:2)
Accenture and Deloitte, yet the Pentagon can't provide audited accounts. You would think the two of them could create an audit system. It's the way the Pentagon wants it to be.
Contractors (Score:2)
"If you are not part of the solution, there is aot of money to be made prolonging the problem"
This is good (Score:2)
DOGE is doing the work in the most ineffective way possible, but this needs to be done. There are way too many contractors taking advantage of taxpayers. The entire system is broken and built to reward federal workers to waste as much money as possible. I worked for the federal govt for 15 years and would be forced to piss away our annual budget (and go negative) every year just so it would look like we needed more money.
Funds will be "redirected" (Score:2)
Who knows what these "consulting" fees are actually for - basically just a jobs program I guess. And now the funds are being "redirected" to the most inane bullshit imaginable. So there's no money saved. There's no costs cut. The defense budget is completely immune to cuts.
"healthcare for our warfighters" (Score:2)
I'm sure that's where all the savings will go. Not a giant parade or a contract for bullshit to a more obedient CEO.
Well.. (Score:3, Informative)
First off they are just bad consulting companies
Re: Well.. (Score:2)
Probably, they will be forced to offer pro-bono services like every other vendor who took on work for the Trump and wasn't paid.
Re: (Score:2)
You are mistaking the difference between those that service (as in do what they are told) Trump personally, who won't get paid, and those who pay Trump to service (as in fuck) the American tax payer who will get paid handsomely (by those taxpayers, not by Trump). 2 billion in extra share earnings in a day is more than typical. Plenty of money in El Salvadorean prisons.
Re: (Score:2)
>>> First off they are just bad consulting companies
>> Their biggest problem was not paying enough bribes to the Orange Overlord. I'm sure this will be corrected in short order.
> You are inadvertently suggesting two things here.
> One, that Joe “Big Guy” Biden was getting plenty of bribes for that shit to continue under his watch.
> Two, the multi-billionaire who is managing the Department of Government Efficiency in charge of seeking out and destroying Fraud, Waste, and Abuse, gives a fuck about bribes. As if they could afford to bribe Elon? Good luck with that delusion.
> [1]https://youtube.com/shorts/Xi3... [youtube.com]
Nope, the former is your imagination. The problem is that they didn't bribe any US president, the difference is the previous one would have refused it and the current one requires bribes and openly solicits bribes.
As for the second... you're assuming President Musk had a hand in this at all. The article says this comes from Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. All Musk wants is to punish anyone who is investigating or charging his companies... and to be loved (despite acting like a complete see you next Tuesd
[1] https://youtube.com/shorts/Xi3gmZH9CaI
Re: (Score:2)
All of this is spot-on.