Because at the national scale, there are only a few outfits that could feasibly make the bid. IBM, Accenture, a couple of others. CGI is maybe the biggest 'go

Because at the national scale, there are only a few outfits that could feasibly make the bid. IBM, Accenture, a couple of others. CGI is maybe the biggest 'go to' shop for this stuff. They have zillions of developers ready to go, and a deeply entrenched lobbyist/salesforce. It's not as though the US Gov could just go to some little startup. Even though the probably should have - big governments and companies don't understand innovation and how these things work. They see it like building 12 football stadiums - how could a small team do it? They need massive industries, tons of experts, lawyers, business analysts! :) These things are hard.