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martyb writes:

Oracle's JEDI mind-meld doesn't work on Uncle Sam's auditors; These are not the govt droids you are looking for:

Oracle's bid to halt the Pentagon's JEDI $10bn winner-takes-all cloud IT contract has been turned down.

Uncle Sam's Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a statement on Wednesday explaining that it would not be taking up Oracle's appeal of the US Department of Defense's stipulation that the entire JEDI technology platform be limited to a single supplier.

Considered one of the most lucrative and sought-after government contracts in recent memory, JEDI (Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure) will award the winning contractor a $10bn decade-long contract to overhaul the DoD's entire IT infrastructure.

Oracle filed complaints, but on Wednesday, the GAO concluded:

"GAO's decision concludes that the Defense Department's decision to pursue a single-award approach to obtain these cloud services is consistent with applicable statutes (and regulations) because the agency reasonably determined that a single-award approach is in the government's best interests for various reasons, including national security concerns, as the statute allows," the office said.

"GAO's decision also concludes that the Defense Department provided reasonable support for all of the solicitation provisions that Oracle contended exceeded the agency's needs. Finally, GAO's decision concludes that the allegations regarding conflicts of interest do not provide a basis for sustaining Oracle's protest."

[...] The decision does not mean the JEDI process is in the clear. IBM has filed a similar protest objecting to the contract's bidding and procurement process. The GAO says that it will be handling those filings separately, with a decision on the IBM appeal due to be delivered by January 18

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