U.S. Awards $10B ID Contract
Accenture LLP, a technology and management consulting company, was awarded a government contract Tuesday worth up to $10 billion to develop and expand biometric technology for checking identities of foreigners visiting America.
The system, known as US-VISIT, requires foreigners to be fingerprinted and photographed upon entering the United States at a major airport or seaport. The technology also can include iris scans to identify people.
The Department of Homeland Security awarded Accenture the contract over two other bidders, Lockheed Martin, based in Bethesda, Maryland, and Computer Sciences Corp. of El Segundo, California. Accenture's parent company is Accenture Ltd., which is incorporated in Bermuda.
The contract is for five years with five one-year options beyond then. Homeland Security officials put its value at between $10 million and $10 billion. It was announced by Asa Hutchison, the department's undersecretary for border and transportation security.
"US-VISIT is one of the top priorities of the department," said Homeland Security spokesman Dennis Murphy.
The system began operating in 115 airports and 14 seaports in January. By the end of the year, the department is to have a similar system in place at the country's land borders. It also is required to have a system in place to keep track of whether foreigners leave when required.
Murphy said doing so is a far greater challenge. In 2002, 358.3 million U.S. and non-U.S. citizens entered the United States through the nation's land borders.
It was announced in April that the program was being expanded to include millions of travelers from some of America's closest allies.
The move affects citizens in 27 countries — including Britain, Japan and Australia — who had been allowed to travel within the United States without a visa for up to 90 days.
Under changes that will take effect by Sept. 30, they will be fingerprinted and photographed when they enter through any of 115 international airports and 14 seaports.
There are no changes in unique rules covering visits by Canadians and Mexicans.
The Bush administration made the decision after determining the so-called "visa-waiver countries" won't meet an October deadline to have biometric passports that include fingerprint and iris identification features that make the documents virtually impossible to counterfeit.
But citizens from those countries still won't have to go through the consulate interviews, background checks, fingerprinting and photographing that foreigners from other countries must do to obtain a visa.
Accenture is a publicly traded company with more than $11.82 billion net revenues reported in 2003, according to the company's Web site. The parent company has more than 110 offices in 48 countries and in 50 U.S. cities.
The US-VISIT program was passed by Congress in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. In January, the U.S. government began fingerprinting and photographing visitors from nations other than the visa-waiver countries at the border.
Fingerprinting the visa-waiver citizens could have ramifications for Americans when they travel abroad. When US-VISIT began last winter, Brazil retaliated by requiring Americans visiting that country to be fingerprinted and photographed.