IT consulting company and systems integrators Accenture, Cisco Systems and Sun Microsystems are still fighting whistleblowers' lawsuits in Arkansas, USA filed in 2004.

The suit filed by former Accenture manager Norman Rille and former PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Neal Roberts accused the three technology companies of establishing a mechanism to receive kickbacks from IT vendors that they give preferential treatment in US government contracts or recommend to potential government customers, according to the lawyer of the whistleblowers.

Aside from Rille and Roberts, the Department of Justice joined the case in 2007.

Two companies that were also named defendants in the lawsuits, Hewlett-Packard and EMC, had settled the case for US$55 million and US$87.5 million, respectively, lawyer Ron Packard said on Monday.

However, Accenture sees the alliance agreements with IT vendors as not illegal. Accenture spokesman Jim McAvoy said the company will defend its position vigorously and expect to win the case.

Sun denied bribing systems integrators to influence government customers into choosing its products, its lawyers said citing the company's comment on the case issued on Tuesday.

Sun added that its rebates, discounts and other remunerations for systems integrators and resellers to the US government are well known.

Cisco declined to make any comment on the case.