This was early-00s so it was slightly more trouble than that but still not the end of the world.
The point is, the person wasn't trying to hedge against looking bad, they literally had to do and document this.
The point is, the person wasn't trying to hedge against looking bad, they literally had to do and document this.
Also, governments are large bureaucracies, with all the process that entails. And because there's no real benefit for them in delivering quicker, but lots of risk in delivering badly, this sort of stuff happens.