I worked on a system for over a decade that originally got awarded as a contract to build 3 systems. When all was said and done, 3 contracts had been awarded to get it to completion and 1 system (which required 9 months of full time work to get into a state to be used in production) was delivered. There are only 2 words for that in the contracting world: stellar success. That was a bigger win than they could ever have dreamed. Just drag it on, hiring the lowest paid new grads you can find to slap something together, stack the project with absurd layers of management, and collect the checks. Eventually, after years and years of this leeching, someone in the government will decide to make it an achievement in their career that they actually got the thing across the finish line. To do that they will sign off on the project and accept it no matter how short of contract requirements anything is. Their goal is to get the thing in the door and get credit for that, no one is going to blame them when its terrible. And the idea of actually punishing the companies that do this, penalizing them financially and legally for violating their contract when they don't deliver a working system on time? Forget it. Never happen. The companies will get the public fighting against 'big government' and crying crocodile tears for how harangued the billion-dollar megaconglomerates are with the RNC clanging finger cymbals while whirling around chanting 'jobs jobs jobs'.