Mary A. Tolan has been newly appointed as director and member of the finance and investment policy committee of the mega-franchise Best Buy.

[Mary] owns 589,001 shares of Accenture stock. Prior to joining AccretiveHealth last November, [she] served 21 years in various management roles at Accenture.

Last month, Best Buy confirmed plans to outsource the company's information systems department, a move that will mean layoffs for about 130 employees and require another 650 workers to follow their jobs to Accenture.

Pretty serious conflict of interests, right? But wait…there's more:

Congress recently forced separation of audit and consulting businesses, thanks largely to the services in both fields rendered to Enron and other high-profile miscreants by Arthur Andersen. A corporate shake-up three years in the making created Andersen Consulting, a Bermuda-based global outsourcing, management consulting and technology services firm that, since Jan. 1, 2001, has been known as Accenture Ltd.

My goodness. Okay. We're all familiar with corporate malfeasance, but – we have to wonder – whatever could all this business with have to do with politics? I'm sooooo glad you asked:

Later this month the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is expected to award the contract to manage the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program tracking millions of people coming to the country each year on visas. [...] the department may well decide to delegate management of the US-VISIT program to an expatriate U.S. company with an appalling track record: Accenture.

[Accenture's] enormous cost overruns, backlogs and information failures have led to outrage in Ohio, New York, Texas, Nebraska, Virginia, and even Canada and the United Kingdom.

Most recently, the U.S. government used Accenture to implement a system by which our fighting men and women overseas could participate in elections. The company failed miserably, wasting enough time and resources that alternative remedies are impossible to implement for this election year's deadline.

Ah, the circle of life. But it wouldn't be complete without a good punch line, so here it is!

[Heavy Gracias to Stigmuth for this one].