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Florida Gives Deloitte Consulting a Happy Ending

The saga between Florida and Deloitte Consulting—a relationship bizarre enough to be reported by TMZ or covered by Perez Hilton—keeps on keeping on, as the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration is going ahead with Big D on a potential $135 million contract to overhaul Florida’s Medicaid data system, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

But wait, didn’t Accenture and IBM, which also bid for the project, file protests with the state over Deloitte winning the Medicaid contract? Yes! But …

Last month, however, both companies suddenly dropped their bid protests — without explanation — clearing the way for Deloitte to win the award.

“All protests to the Procurement Award have been removed,” read a slide from an official meeting last week on the state’s Medicaid operations.

Officials with IBM and Agency for Health Care Administration didn’t respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for Accenture declined to comment.

The last we heard was that Accenture’s and IBM’s challenges on the Medicaid contract bidding process were sent to the state’s Division of Administrative Hearings on Sept. 14. Did the administrative law judge assigned to the case rule against them? Or did lawyers for Accenture and IBM say “screw it” and decide not to fight Deloitte and the state on this anymore? Who knows!

What I guess this all boils down to is Florida believes Deloitte won the bidding process fair and square, even though Accenture claims Deloitte misrepresented its record to the state by not disclosing any fines the firm received from governments for poor performance within the past five years, according to the Tampa Bay Times. That would include millions of dollars in sanctions during the time period Deloitte built the state’s craptastic unemployment system:

Deloitte’s work on Florida’s unemployment system — for which it was fined some $8 million for poor performance — ended in 2015.

In its complaint, IBM claimed a state evaluator failed to consider entire portions of the company’s application, artificially deflating IBM’s eventual score.

The state does not appear to have addressed questions raised by the protesting firms. Instead, each agreed independently to drop the issue, records show.

And now with those other guys out of the way, Florida and Deloitte can continue their toxic love affair with each other. Oh well. Good luck with that.

Firm behind Florida unemployment mess will get $135 million state contract after all [Tampa Bay Times]

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Awarding Deloitte a New State Contract Just Goes to Show That Florida’s Leadership Is Dumb
Deloitte Consulting Winning Florida’s $135 Million Medicaid Contract Has Left Accenture and IBM Feeling a Bit Pissy
Deloitte’s Winning Bid Amount for $135 Million Medicaid Contract Is Being Kept Secret by Florida for Some Reason
QOTD: Deloitte Consulting Is Irresponsible, Lacks Integrity, and Is Unreliable, Says Accenture