And this situation is different how? The CDC needed a website that works. Deloitte did not deliver a website that works. If it had, it would not have been abandoned, flushing $44M of work down the drain.

You could also apply this weaselly BS to Boeing. Their "ask", if there was one, was to make a plane that customers would buy and that would pass FAA review. Not "a plane that works".

No one's contract just says "make an X that works", even though that's what everyone wants. Because an X that works is hard to define. Fundamentally the system depends on honor and trust. Which is why we despise losers that just try to get paid and fuck the customer.