U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper has removed himself from reviewing a disputed $10 billion cloud computing deal because of a possible conflict of interest, a move that could further delay the contract-award process.
Esper has delegated decision-making on the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud (JEDI) program to Deputy Secretary David Norquist, the
Pentagon said on Tuesday.
"Although not legally required to, he (Esper) has removed himself from participating in any decision making ... due to his adult son's employment with one of the original contract applicants," chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Rath Hoffman said in a statement.