Misdirected Applications Found

Amy Smith
Austin Chronicle
6/8/2006

Hardly a week goes by without Accenture drawing fire for one snafu after another as the lead player in the state's privatization experiment with public assistance services. The Houston Chronicle added a barrel of fuel to the controversy with last week's report that at least 144 applications from needy Texans mistakenly ended up at a warehouse in Seattle.

The reason? Accenture, the Bermuda-based outsourcing giant on the receiving end of the $899 million contract, listed the wrong fax number when it instructed folks where to send applications for Medicaid, food stamps, children's health insurance, and other services. The documents included the applicants' personal information, such as Social Security numbers and medical histories - not the sort of details you'd want to end up in the wrong hands, much less a warehouse in the Pacific Northwest.

It took months before the case of the missing applicants was straightened out, meaning Accenture and the Health and Human Service Commission didn't commit to get to the bottom of the mystery until reporter Polly Ross Hughes started poking around and asking questions. In light of this latest revelation, the Texas State Employees Union has stepped up its public demands for state officials to follow the lead of several other states and yank the Accenture contract.

"If state employees had compromised confidential information like this, they would be fired in a heartbeat. The same standard should apply to Accenture," said TSEU Vice-President Mike Gross.