Earlier today I thought, "gee, I wonder if my firm has an Iraq office"
From the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot file, comes this story courtesy of Francine - Deloitte is operating in Iraq.
The article that mentions Deloitte is about a Marine facing court martial - appealing a conviction actually.
It breathlessly discusses all the operations Deloitte is involved in. And it's certainly too weird to believe, but I'll assume the Salem News has its facts right.
What would one of the Big Four be doing in Iraq? Auditing the American contractors? Apparently yes - and doing some consulting work too, according to the article.
I sped through the article, but the jarring thing that appears in the whole piece is the series of revelations from a former Marine, a friend of the embattled Marine, who discusses Deloitte and makes what I can only describe as really far-out claims. The Marine is part of a group that's investing D&T's operations in Iraq. The article shows that they're alleging a link between the military judicial system and D&T. They believe they'll be proved right a few years down the road, as NCIS and JAG officers - think military lawyers, if you haven't watched TV in the past ten years) - will be getting lucrative positions in non-military fields thanks to all this work. There's also additional allegations linking D&T with terrorist organizations - it seems really far fetched though.
One thing that doesn't surprise me, though, is that there would be members of the Armed Forces, past or present, who have the will to look for this sort of thing, or believe in it even if the evidence isn't there. A quick Google search will reveal articles like this one by Chris White, which talk about deception in military recruiting. The fact that the No Child Left Behind Act somehow makes it possible for the American military to get copies of school records including student contact information that leads to potential recruiting calls is chiling to say the least.
Moving back to the original article, though, I have to point out that despite the seriousness of the claims, the whole thing is thrown into question - do you blame an out of context quote, or the Marine himself - when you get a quote from a self-described friend of the defendant saying that Deloitte has, "offices and lobbyists in nearly every national
capitol and, seemingly, in almost every provincial and state capitol in
the world."
Well, yeah. So do most Big Four firms.
One immediately begins to wonder if they're reading too much into things that aren't there, or whether this is just one red herring of an innocent fact amid more insidious allegations?
I'm not going to jump on the conspiracy theory train today, as rich a topic of discussion it is. It's just a bit too crazy. But the fact alone that there are Big Firms operating in Iraq is enough to generate some level of wonder in my mind. How crazy would it be to actually show up to a job with your audit kit, while wearing fashionable kevlar?
Instead of making a cute reference to my calculators as battle rifles and sidearms, actually taking the real thing with you is just a bit too much.
It's enough to make you appreciate your at-times-relatively-boring-but-at-least-I-don't-get-shot-at desk job.