Pentagon issues forceful rebuke of Oracle as debate over a massive federal contract turns caustic
The Pentagon has issued an unusually strong rebuke of Oracle, accusing the company of employing “poorly-informed and often manipulative speculation” in its efforts to undermine the military’s process of awarding a massive 10-year contract for cloud computing technology.
The remarks were the latest flash point in the long-running dispute over the bidding process for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI), a $10 billion contract that would be one of the federal government’s most expensive information technology procurements.
Oracle alleged in a lawsuit that the Defense Department’s bidding process has been plagued with conflicts of interest and rigged in favor of Amazon’s cloud computing business. Oracle’s attempt to block the award was rejected this month, with the judge in charge of the case explaining his reasoning in a lengthy document unsealed Friday. But in his decision, the judge posed new questions about the Pentagon’s legal argument for awarding one big contract.
Defense Department spokeswoman Elissa Smith noted in a statement that the judge also affirmed the Pentagon was “reasonably justified” to award a single contract. Despite the “tension” in the judge’s ruling, the department has said it plans to award the contract in August, nearly a year and a half after it was announced.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/07/30/pentagon-issues-forceful-rebuke-oracle-debate-over-massive-federal-contract-turns-caustic/
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