Amazon to appeal Pentagon decision to award Microsoft $10bn contract
By Caoimhe Toman
Date: Friday 15 Nov 2019
(Sharecast News) - Amazon will appeal the Trump administration's decision to grant a $10.0bn defence contract for the Pentagon to rival Microsoft and has accused the government of showing "unmistakable bias".
The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure project - known as JEDI - is designed to modernise the antiquated data and communication systems within the US military and it had been up for grabs over the past few months with four big companies bidding for it.
Amazon said on Thursday it was lodging a legal case against the decision after the Pentagon awarded the Jedi contract to Microsoft in October, following several rounds of bidding during which the US President allegedly intervened at the final moment.
An Amazon spokesperson said that a series of aspects of the evaluation process of the bids contained clear errors and bias.
"AWS [Amazon's cloud computing service] is uniquely experienced and qualified to provide the critical technology the US military needs, and remains committed to supporting the Department of Defence's modernisation efforts.
"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."
The Pentagon refused to comment on what it called "potential litigation".
According to the Financial Times, Amazon had been expected to win the contract as is was the only firm able to encrypt data to the "top secret" level the Pentagon required, but Trump threw the process into doubt at the last moment, warning that "great companies" had complained about it.
A book by a former Pentagon official released in October claimed Trump wanted to "screw" Amazon by denying it the Jedi contract.
Defence Secretary Mark Esper told reporters in South Korea that the process had been fair: "I am confident it was conducted freely and fairly without any type of outside influence."
Email this article to a friend
or share it with one of these popular networks:
You are here: news
10 Lower Thames St,
London EC3R 6EN