Accenture Federal Services (AFS), Accenture plc, and Accenture LLP have agreed to pay the United States $25 million to resolve alleged violations of the False Claims Act for failing to comply with anti-discrimination requirements in federal contracts.
The US government alleged that Accenture took race or sex into account when making hiring decisions to achieve progress towards non-public workforce composition goals. According to the allegations, business unit leaders received monthly reports showing the racial and gender composition of their units, with figures highlighted in green, yellow or red depending on whether representation met or exceeded company targets.
The Justice Department alleged that these demographic targets influenced hiring practices, including during a round of entry-level recruitment conducted around the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021. Race and sex were also allegedly considered in promotion decisions, with candidates who could advance AFS' demographic goals given additional visibility among senior leaders involved in managing director promotions.
The settlement resolves allegations that from 2017 to the present, Accenture falsely certified compliance with these conditions. The settlement agreement said Accenture denied engaging in discrimination.
The Trump administration has directed federal contractors to certify that they don't operate diversity and inclusion programmes, which it views as violations of antidiscrimination statutes. Many US companies have already scaled back or modified diversity policies after Trump's orders.
Associate Attorney General Stanley E Woodward Jr. said, "Opportunity and promotion in the workplace must be earned through merit," adding that the resolution made clear the Department would continue to pursue unconstitutional discriminatory employment practices.
