Accenture pulls out of NZ with loss of 98 jobs

By IRENE CHAPPLE

Consulting firm Accenture is closing its only New Zealand office, leaving nearly 100 staff without jobs.

Staff were told late on Thursday that almost all people in the Wellington office were being made redundant.

The move is effective from next week.

Of the 106 employed, seven will be moved to Australia and one to Britain.

Accenture's media and analyst relations manager, Simon Bush, said staff working on current contracts would be retained until completion.

The office was expected to close by the end of the month.

A short statement issued by the company said the office predominantly served the Government, and demand for services had "softened to the point [that] closing the Wellington office makes strategic sense to the company".

It said the company would "deploy resources as needed to carry out current engagements and honour existing contracts".

One of Accenture's major contracts is with the Department for Courts, which was earlier this year reported to have paid it $32 million over the past six years. the department had paid Accenture $31.6 million since 1996.nte

Of this, $8.7 million was for the Courts' Collect computer project.

Collect, meant to help improve the collection of fines, was due to have been finished almost a year ago. It has run so late that Accenture has been hit with penalty payments, but the department has not disclosed the amount. An official said Accenture had assured the department that it would complete the contract.

Accenture's New Zealand office - owned by Accenture Canada Holdings - opened in 1990, and revenue across Australasia is about A$400 million ($474 million).

Accenture was created in 1989 as a spin off from the consulting arm of accounting giant Andersen. Andersen is at present embroiled in an investigation over its role in the Enron collapse and in March its New Zealand arm was swallowed by Ernst & Young with the loss of 63 jobs.