Accenture India fires several employees over fake experience letters

Accenture's India unit has laid off several employees for obtaining job offers from Accenture by using documentation and experience letters from fraudulent companies.

This comes at a time when tech firms struggle to make sense of trends such as moonlighting or employees with side gigs.

In response to a question from The Hindu, Accenture India issued a statement saying, “We have discovered an effort to use documentation and experience letters from fraudulent companies to obtain offers of employment from Accenture in India... We have exited people who we confirmed took advantage of this scheme. We have taken action to ensure that there will be no impact on our ability to serve our clients.”

Although it is unknown how many Accenture employees were involved in the scam, buzz on Twitter is that thousands were caught.

Accenture also stated that it has "zero tolerance for any non-adherence" to its strict business ethics code. "We are continuing to hire and honour current job offers for suitable people," the statement said.

 According to reports, a large number of Human Resources managers in the industry are now reviewing the experience letters and other documents of those hired during the pandemic boom.

The uncertainty during the pandemic led to techies opting for side gigs, which grew into a moonlighting crisis for the IT sector. Companies like Infosys and Wipro have done massive layoffs, citing moonlighting.