Moreover, at the state and local levels, public scrutiny and understanding are often weak and the specialized investigative and prosecution resources needed in public corruption cases tend to be inadequate or lacking.
***************
At the federal level, adequate resources are there for the proper scrutiny and/or prosecution of contracting “irregularities” but these enforcement capabilities are rarely used to crack down on unscrupulous behavior. Sure, every now and then there’s a high profile case exposing corruption, but for every one of those cases there is a multitude of other ones that escape attention and/or corrective actions.
Contracting offices in the federal government are often hesitant to confront contractors. They just don’t want to open the can of worms or get political blow back. The project offices often turn a blind eye toward questionable things because they just want the work done quietly, even if they contractor is ripping them off or not fully adhering to the terms of the contract. The project offices also fear having their own dirty laundry aired out.
Its interesting that problems exist at both the federal and state/local levels and go unaddressed, but for different reasons.
You have offered a distressing view of federal contract officials as often afraid to do their jobs honestly. Some federal agencies — Transportation, NASA, and the DoD, especially — seem to be at the particular mercy of contractor politics. Many NASA and DoD programs seem to be conceived mostly as hi-tech make work. For example, we built the Shuttle as a way to build the Space Station, which in turn provided the Shuttle with something to do.