I often wonder why something like this is not required to be open source from day 1. I think you still contract an agency to build it, but had the specification

I often wonder why something like this is not required to be open source from day 1. I think you still contract an agency to build it, but had the specification and code been open all along then this kind of thing would be less likely. Of course, that would make sense and since we are talking about government contracting...