A Defense Department investigation has found no conflicts of interest tainted the integrity of the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure acquisition, and DOD has identified proposals from Amazon and Microsoft as the only two bids in the "competitive range" eligible to win the award, worth up to $10 billion.
The Pentagon launched the investigation amidst Oracle America's lawsuit in the Court of Federal Claims challenging DOD's decision to make just one award for the JEDI program. The investigation centered on a former DOD employee who worked on the JEDI program before being hired by Amazon Web Services, one of the companies competing for the contract.
DOD spokeswoman Elissa Smith said the investigation found no conflicts of interest negatively affected the JEDI acquisition process, but she added it uncovered "potential ethical violations," which have been referred to the Defense Department inspector general. She did not elaborate on the suspected violations. The development was first reported by Bloomberg News.
The Pentagon will now ask the judge presiding over Oracle's lawsuit to lift the stay in the case, Smith confirmed. Oracle had motioned for the judge to rule in its favor in February, before DOD's investigation put the proceedings on hold. Oracle is asking the judge to prohibit DOD from further pursuing its single-award acquisition strategy.
While the case is yet to be decided, the investigation's completion means DOD can move forward with evaluating proposals. DOD has set a competitive range for the JEDI contract and determined just two companies' proposals respectively met the criteria, according to Smith.
"The two companies within the competitive range will participate further in the procurement process," Smith said.
Smith later confirmed Amazon Web Services and Microsoft as the two companies who bid within the competitive range. IBM and Oracle had also submitted proposals.
The earliest the contract will be awarded at this point is mid-July, according to Smith. The Pentagon had originally planned to award the contract in April.
Companies and industry groups have pushed back on the Pentagon's plan to make just one award for the potentially 10-year, $10 billion JEDI program since its inception in late 2017. Rumors have swirled around whether the Pentagon crafted the program so only Amazon Web Services, the largest cloud business in the world, could realistically compete. Oracle made those claims explicit as part of its lawsuit, and Amazon is a co-defendant in the case along with the U.S. government.
Meanwhile, DOD officials insist the department will use multiple cloud providers well into the future. But they argue JEDI should go to just one company to make it easier to manage a cloud service that they want used across the U.S. military, including for operations overseas.
"DOD remains committed to adopting the best enterprise cloud solution that fits its unique and critical needs," Smith wrote. "The scope and complexity of DOD's mission requires multiple clouds from multiple vendors. JEDI is one element of DOD's overall multi-cloud strategy and part of larger efforts to modernize information technology across the DOD enterprise."