Emanuel: Consulting Firm To Find Savings In City Procurement Process
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Mayor Rahm Emanuel has hired an outside accounting firm to streamline the City of Chicago's procurement and contracting process, in what he hopes will save tens of millions of dollars.
With a Southwest Side city workshop as a backdrop, Mayor Emanuel announced that the firm Accenture will conduct a complete evaluation of the city's procurement services, and he says the company predicts it will find at least $25 million in savings.
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"While Accenture will go through all the contracts, help us vote on the consolidation, and find efficiencies and savings, they do not get paid because they identify the savings," he said. "They do not see any value until the taxpayers see value."
That means if the city saves $25 million or more, then Accenture will receive up to 10 percent of that savings.
Accenture began as the business and technology consulting arm of Arthur Andersen, and was spun off as Andersen Consulting in 1989. In 2001, the firm changed its name to Accenture after all ties with Arthur Andersen were cut, and while Accenture thrived, Arthur Andersen was effectively shut down by the Enron scandal in the early 2000s.
