A private business sure as hell wouldn't be so foolish as to sign such a contract.
The government is ostensibly giving them money and saying, "We hope you choose to do the thing we want with this money but you don't have to, no pressure."
Exactly what you'd expect happened, they took the money and did nothing. I honestly have a hard time finding that nearly as unethical as the government being incredibly irresponsible with our money, either through naivety or corruption.
They aren’t saying that. They’re saying the ethics are functionally irrelevant. It’s not dastardly enough to provoke a standard. It’s just monumentally stupid on the government’s part.
Corporations exist to make a profit and that’s fine, but they don’t need to claw and steal every penny they can find. Why do we perpetuate this idea that the appropriate behaviors for an organization are these horribly antisocial actions.