Accenture Agrees to Pay $25 Million to Resolve Federal Employment Discrimination Allegations

Key Takeaways

• $25 Million Settlement: Accenture Federal Services, Accenture plc and Accenture LLP agreed to pay the United States $25 million to resolve the Justice Department’s allegations.
• Federal Contract Certifications at Issue: The government alleged that AFS falsely certified compliance with anti-discrimination requirements attached to federal contracts from 2017 to the present.
• Hiring and Promotion Practices Challenged: The Justice Department alleged that AFS considered race or sex in certain hiring and promotion decisions as it pursued internal workforce composition goals.
• Professional Development Included: The government also alleged that certain training, mentoring, leadership development and educational opportunities limited eligibility based on race or sex.
• False Claims Act Implications: The case underscores how employment practices can create broader compliance exposure for federal contractors when they conflict with representations made to the government.

Deep Dive

Accenture has agreed to pay the United States $25 million to resolve allegations that its federal contracting business considered race and sex in hiring, promotion and professional development while certifying its compliance with anti-discrimination requirements attached to federal contracts.

The Justice Department announced the settlement Monday with Accenture Federal Services, Accenture plc and Accenture LLP. The allegations concern employment practices dating from 2017 to the present and were pursued under the False Claims Act, placing the dispute at the intersection of workplace policies and the representations companies make when doing business with the federal government.

Most federal contracts contain provisions requiring contractors to provide equal opportunity to employees and applicants. As a condition of federal contracting, companies must certify that they will not discriminate because of race or sex and that they will take steps to ensure applicants are employed and employees treated during employment without regard to either characteristic.

The government alleged that Accenture Federal Services, or AFS, certified compliance with those requirements while maintaining employment practices that did not comply with them.

According to the Justice Department, AFS maintained non-public goals concerning the racial and sex composition of its workforce. Business unit leaders received monthly summaries showing the percentage of each race and sex within their units, with the figures marked green, yellow or red depending on their relationship to the company’s goals. Green indicated that representation was at or above the goal, yellow that it was within 5% of the goal and red that it was below that threshold.

The Justice Department alleged that these goals influenced hiring decisions based on race and sex. It cited a round of entry-level hiring at the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021 that, according to the government, was undertaken in part to make further progress toward AFS’ racial representation goals.

The government also challenged aspects of the company’s promotion process. When AFS considered candidates for managing director, the Justice Department alleged, it separately discussed candidates whose promotion would further its race or sex demographic goals to give them additional visibility among company leaders responsible for promotion decisions.

According to the government, AFS also used color highlighting to distinguish those candidates from others during the review process and developed a separate pipeline of potential promotion candidates whose advancement would further its demographic goals.

The allegations extended to professional development. The Justice Department said certain training, mentoring, leadership development and educational opportunities limited eligibility according to race or sex.

Among the programs identified by the government was Amplify to Elevate, which AFS operated from August 2022 through February 2025. The Justice Department alleged that participation was reserved for employees based on race and that the program provided mentorship and networking intended to improve participants’ career prospects.

The government’s case did not rest simply on the existence of demographic goals or employment programs. Its False Claims Act allegations centered on the relationship between those practices and the certifications AFS made as a federal contractor.

“Federal contractors have a straightforward obligation: make employment decisions without regard to race or sex,” Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said. “A company cannot take taxpayer dollars, certify that it is following that simple principle, and then use race or sex as a factor in deciding who gets an opportunity.”

Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. said the settlement reflected the department’s approach to enforcing those requirements.

“Opportunity and promotion in the workplace must be earned through merit,” Woodward said. “Today’s resolution makes unmistakably clear that the Department will continue to aggressively pursue unconstitutional discriminatory employment practices.”

The $25 million settlement resolves the government’s allegations against Accenture. The Justice Department described the underlying conduct as alleged violations, and the resolution should be distinguished from a judicial determination that the allegations were proven.

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