The way that government procurement often works, it isn't the cheap contractors you end up with, either. Not many companies have the resources or willingness t

The way that government procurement often works, it isn't the cheap contractors you end up with, either. Not many companies have the resources or willingness to stick through the long time it often takes to go through the bidding process, nor all of the pre-qualification requirements. The whole process is long and drawn out with all sorts of checks and balances built in to it, based on previous learnings from previous contracts that have failed in various ways (particularly if it has embarrassed an elected figure). No doubt on the back of this failure, there will be more conditions added to the bidding process, making it even harder to find a vendor. Usually by the time the entire process is done, there's not many vendors left and in my experience they're usually not the ones you'd actually want to do the work if you had a choice, just often ones that'll at least get you something.