Amazon said Thursday that it will protest a Pentagon decision to award Microsoft a massive cloud computing contract worth up to $10 billion, citing “unmistakable bias” and “political influence.”
The controversial and long-delayed Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract had been widely expected to go to Amazon Web Services but was instead awarded to rival Microsoft last month. Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener said in an emailed statement that contract awards should be “free from political influence.”
In July, President Donald Trump directed Defense Secretary Mark Esper to reexamine the contract, citing concerns that it would go to Amazon.
(Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
The JEDI contract, announced in March 2018, is meant to modernize the Pentagon’s computing infrastructure in the hands of a commercial tech company.
“AWS is uniquely experienced and qualified to provide the critical technology the U.S. military needs, and remains committed to supporting the DoD’s modernization efforts,” Herdener said. “We also believe it’s critical for our country that the government and its elected leaders administer procurements objectively and in a manner that is free from political influence. Numerous aspects of the JEDI evaluation process contained clear deficiencies, errors, and unmistakable bias – and it’s important that these matters be examined and rectified.”
(c) 2019, The Washington Post · Jay Greene, Aaron Gregg
{Matzav.com}
