Accenture’s contract to develop and maintain a Covid-19 vaccine data solution has nearly quadrupled in value, ballooning to just under $23.5 million across five amendments since it was first awarded.
The Department of Health posted an amendment to Accenture’s contract for “vaccine data solution and administration services” last week, marking a jump in value of $13.3 million.
The total contract is now worth $23.494 million and runs from 17 May 2021 to 31 December 2022.
The contract was originally worth $6.7 million when it was first awarded to Accenture, but has since nearly quadrupled in value.
The Department of Health originally posted the $13 million contract amendment as a separate, standalone contract, making it appear that Accenture would be made more than $35 million for its vaccine data work.
But a spokesperson for the Department told InnovationAus.com this was done in error, and that the Accenture contract is worth $23.494 million in total.
“The Covid-19 vaccines systems provide ordering, logistics, delivery and reporting of Covid-19 vaccinations to over 10,000 sites across Australia, enabling the vaccinations of all participating Australians,” the Department of Health spokesperson told InnovationAus.com.
Accenture was announced as the federal government’s digital and data lead for the vaccine rollout in late 2020.
Accenture has developed a software solution to track Covid-19 vaccines from arrival to injection, offering “point-of-time” visibility of doses. This solution was delivered to the government in February last year.
The company has previously provided an ordering system for vaccines to the Commonwealth for several years, before the current pandemic, and has worked to adapt this for COVID-19.
Accenture was also awarded a brief one-month contract running to January this year worth nearly $60,000 for “vaccine ecosystem support services”.
Accenture enjoyed a bumper last financial year for Commonwealth contracts, with the value of this work increasing by $62 million year-on-year in 2020-21.
The Irish firm was paid $371.6 million across 104 active contracts in the last financial year, up from $309.9 million in 2019-20. This equates to a near-20 per cent increase in government work.
Accenture has also been brought in for a number of significant federal government projects, including the delivery of the permissions capability, the digital identity scheme and My Health Record.
Labor has pledged to clean up tender reporting should it win government but has stopped short of requiring full disclosure of consultancies’ government work and advice.
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