Oracle Loses Protest of Pentagon’s $10B Cloud Contract
Partner Eric Crusius was quoted by Federal News Network on the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) decision to deny Oracle's protest of the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) on Nov. 14. Oracle protested that JEDI was anti-competitive and violated law and regulation. Oracle believed that it could create significant risk if the DoD awarded the contract to a company that will not offer the best value for all future JEDI users. The GAO decision may also affect IBM who also submitted a pre-award protest claiming that the RFP was flawed. Oracle may move the case to the Federal Court of Claims as the decision ignores significant conflict of interest issues that they protested.
“If they do bring it to the court, there is no automatic stay, so the court would have to find that Oracle has a likelihood of success on the merits (in addition to other factors) to receive a stay pending the outcome of the protest. If no stay is issued, then the protest may be moot by the time it is over. The decision is another illustration of the wide latitude contracting agencies are given when crafting procurements by GAO and the Court of Federal Claims. Statements by an agency regarding their needs, even if supported by minimal evidence, are usually sufficient to give the agency the green light to move forward without interference or second guessing from GAO or the court,” stated Mr. Crusius.
READ: Oracle Loses Protest of Pentagon’s $10B Cloud Contract