This is SOP for a contract like this. I worked in this field for over a decade before I went back to straight consulting. Helping or ever writing a RFP / RFI / proposal for a customer is not unheard of. I was given the opportunity to provide input on more than one occasion and would certainly include requirements I knew competitors could not functionally meet, in esence eliminating all other competitors. They could respond but when the technical team members meet with project sponsors and there is a big red square on the scorecard in the competitors column indicating they can't meet a requirement what is a SVP going to say? 'We don't need that'? They aren't technical and even if they ask about it we clearly have internal support for our product and can count on the technical team explaining why our feature is a requirement. (We just so happen to have the best product so this wasn't much of stretch.) The only difference between the private sector and gov is we can't take them out to a $3000 dinner to discuss the requirements before they submit them. As you can tell, this is a "bit" sleazy, while still mostly truthful we are clearly trying to influence the outcome in our favor.

Having worked with the OIG (office inspector general), more than one of them, they are as much a political animal as any other office in DC, more so in lots of ways, so getting a report from them that says what you want is just a matter of phone calls and dinners with the right ppl.

AWS got played, plain and simple. They thought they were going to win and probably didn't do as mush as they should have to make sure they could win, and at the same time underestimated Microsoft. Just bc Azure was new to the DOD doesn't mean its new to the feds, I worked on several projects in AZ with the feds, and MSFT is not new to DC, they have been playing in DC politics for decades, and doing so very successfully. Which I am guessing from my outside view was AWS / Jeff's mistake. Buying a mansion and hosting partys in DC and a amateur move. There are a lot of very powerful ppl in DC that are former MSFT employees. It is very common practice to move from MSFT's fed teams to a fairly high position in a fed agency for your 20 years to get you retirement plan completed.