I have mixed feelings about this because people may game the system just to protect people they know or to simply try to make money without actually being hones

I have mixed feelings about this because people may game the system just to protect people they know or to simply try to make money without actually being honest with the evaluation. I don't know the details on how the evaluations happen, but I think you should only be able to evaluate the code and recommend people without knowing who the actual author is. This way you prevent some biases.