INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A new report from the US Department of Defense (DoD) has revealed that it was unable to determine whether the White House influenced the
procurement process for the Pentagon's $10bn cloud computing contract as senior Defense Department officials were barred from answering
questions on the subject during interviews.The inspector general found that the department personnel who evaluated proposals and ultimately
awarded the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract were not pressured by any senior DoD leaders
However, the investigators could not rule out whether the White House interfered with the contract being awarded to Microsoft last year.This
is because the DoD's general counsel instructed senior DoD witnesses not to verbally answer any questions about communications between the
In a statement, Pentagon spokesperson Lt
Robert Carver explained that the inspector general's report should finally end the debate that the contract was unfairly awarded to
JEDI Cloud procurement process fairly and in accordance with law
The IG's team found that there was no influence by the White House or DOD leadership on the career source selection boards who made the
ultimate vendor selection
This report should finally close the door on corporate-driven attacks on the career procurement officials who have been working tirelessly
to get the much needed JEDI Cloud computing environment into the hands of our frontline warfighters while continuing to protect American
Pentagon's cloud architecture.In a blog post, deputy general counsel at Microsoft, Jon Palmer explained that Amazon should not be allowed a
That principle ensures that companies seeking to do business with the federal government offer their best price from the beginning
Amazon is not asking to be on a level playing field
while evaluating the bids for the contract and that President Trump's public remarks about Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos had improperly
influenced the outcome.While the inspector general's new report was aimed at clearing up the controversy surrounding the JEDI contract's
bidding process, the fact that DoD witnesses were unable to answer questions regarding communications with the White House does cast some
doubt over the report's findings.Via Politico
