Worse, there's laws in place (in the name of "cost savings") that need changed before any policy improvement could be made. A group can't just decide "it would be better if we didn't use the lowest bidder." There's legal repercussions and losers can sue (leading to more expense than if they just went with them in the first place). It's truly terrible.

Don't see the private sector doing so either. It's a scramble every year for Glastonbury festival tickets.

Also sad: the (terrible) response times and efforts detailed here exceed what many organizations, private and public, have shown in their situations.