- The American government spends billions to consult contracts, making it a main target for Doge.
- Deloitte and Accenture employees told Bi that they were worried about employment supplementary in the midst of contractual examinations.
- Although the exams would cause disturbances, they also offered opportunities, said a Deloitte chief.
Trump’s White House Doge’s Office agitated the public sector in its mission to reduce spending and improve efficiency – work that is generally left to consulting companies.
After having dismissed the federal workers and claiming to have reduced billions of expenses, Doge now turns his attention to the consultants themselves.
The General Services Administration, or GSA, the main arm of the United States government, said the federal agencies to re -examine and justify their contracts with 10 major consultants.
They have until Friday to provide GSA with a list of contracts they consider essential and those that can be cut.
“Within the framework of the efforts of the Trump-Vance administration to eliminate fraud and waste, the GSA initially asked the agency’s partners to write a brief explanation on the reasons why the consulting contracts were essential to fill their statutory ends,” GSA spokesperson for Business Insider.
Bi understands that the giants of the Deloitte and Accenture council, as well as IBM and Booz Allen Hamilton, are among the 10 companies.
The federal government spends tens of billions a year in consulting services and is the largest customer for many companies included on the list.
Deloitte US receives $ 3.2 billion per year thanks to its contracts with federal agencies, or approximately 9.6% of its last annual income. Booz Allen Hamilton achieves almost all of his $ 10.7 billion in government contracts.
Finding itself in the hot headquarters of Doge, the federal advice services are preparing for disturbances, Accenture and Deloitte employees told BI.
They asked not to be identified because they were not allowed to speak to the media. Bi has checked their job.
GSA helps supply work for other government agencies. Images J. David Ake / Getty
A consultant for Accenture Federal Services said: “Everyone fears that their work is next, and no one knows when it will end. We already have fewer projects and we expect more to be reduced.”
Three AFS employees told Bi that in February, Accenture has reduced the time that employees are authorized between projects, known in industry as “on the bench”.
During a town hall in February, they were informed that the deadline, training or recruitment of time between the projects would be eliminated. Previously, they received a maximum buffer zone of four weeks between projects before facing the termination, the employees said. Under the new policy, employees who do not have an immediate project have lined up.
“Simply, you are on a project or to go out,” said one of the AFS employees at BI.
They were told that the hard position on internal invoicing would continue until the Trump administration is “on a more stable land,” said an AFS employee.
Workers in the Government and Public Services of Deloitte (GPS) told BI that Big Four had not brought out of manifest political changes in the reaction to federal contracts under revision. However, an employee described the atmosphere as “stressful” and said that projects were drawn, creating a very large bench.
“There is really not much work available to ask,” said the GPS worker, adding that he thought he was better to leave the advice and come back in a few years “when things settled down.”
Accenture and Deloitte did not respond to requests for comments.
Opportunity for consultants
The Dogee exam on companies contracts comes down to the value that consultants in value bring to federal operations.
“More paid consultants to do things like doing PowerPoint slides and writing meeting minutes!” Doug Collins, secretary of the veteran business department, said last month by announcing that he would reduce contracts worth 2 billion dollars.
Michael Mische, management consultant, former partner at KPMG, and professor at the Marshall School of the USC, said that consultants play a precious role in government operations, but that it was difficult to calculate the exact performance of their services.
“How do you calculate the return to a strategy? Or how do you really calculate the return to organizational change?” He said.
He added that it was “an absolutely correct criticism” that consultants work with urgency but not efficiency and that the industry “had to disrupt”.
‘Good value’
Bi spoke to a senior official of the Deloitte GPS division who defended the work of the company.
“We are constantly striving to bring good value and show value because this is how we then gain additional work,” said the main leader.
The chief understood the idea that there was ineffectiveness or bloating in federal expenses and argued that the consultants had brought greater efficiency to the government.
“We are constantly showing, we have implemented this new tool – this allowed you to save 5,000 hours this year – or we have identified the amount X in cost or against burns or costs or anything.”
The leader of Deloitte said that the value came from the realization of the industry and the technological expertise that the government did not always have.
Mische and the GPS chief of Deloitte thought that the contract examinations would not necessarily lead to a significant loss of activity for consultants but rather to a change with the objective of work.
The Deloitte chief said that departments such as climate and transport have reasons to feel uncomfortable, but those of data and AI “could feel very optimistic that things will resume” given the accent put by the Trump administration on automation and AI.
He thought that there would also be a temporary increase in opportunities thanks to consultants to intervene as “dressings” instead of federal employees who had been released.
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