A former Fire Department honcho and longtime confidante of Commissioner Laura Kavanagh is now working for a global IT consulting giant that racked up $39 million in no-bid FDNY contracts under his watch – a dual relationship critics say skirts conflict-of-interest laws.
Ex-Deputy Commissioner JonPaul Augier retired from his $241,119-a-year FDNY job on Jan. 27 and immediately announced his new position as senior manager at Accenture, saying on LinkedIn that he’s “extremely proud to join this incredibly talented team of professionals.”
City workers by law can’t explore employment with firms or nonprofits they work with as part of their existing job duties while still working for the city.
It’s unclear when Augier, 49, began talks to join Accenture.
He did not return messages seeking comment.
In a December interview with Government Technology, Augier said the “crowning achievement” of his 27 years at the FDNY was working with Accenture in 2021 to install a new $22 million emergency dispatch system, called FireCAD, aimed at cutting emergency response times.
“On the face of it, it appears to be a conflict of interest,” an FDNY official told The Post. “Whose interest was uppermost in his mind when he was working with this company at the FDNY? The city’s or his own?”
The FDNY denied any violations.
“The Department has taken diligent steps to ensure it is in compliance with relevant conflict of interest rules,” spokesman Jim Long said.
Accenture would not say when it began discussing employment with Augier, or whether it put any restrictions on his ongoing work with the FDNY.
“We do not comment on personnel matters,” a spokesman said.
In 2018, Augier was promoted from FDNY lieutenant to deputy commissioner for dispatch operations and public safety technology. During the first four months, his job fell under the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications before he was transferred back to the FDNY.
He is currently a defendant alongside Kavanagh in a lawsuit accusing the FDNY of ageism.
Since 2018, Accenture has landed at least $39 million in FDNY no-bid contracts for data-processing equipment maintenance and other computer work, records show.
Accenture in 2018 also scored a $390,800 DoITT contract while Augier briefly worked for the agency, part of the $733.5 million in overall city work it has garnered in the past 17 years.
FireCAD crashed three times during its first six months operating, but Augier insisted in his interview with Government Technology: “There’s been a huge learning curve, but now we are cooking with gas.”