The root of the problem is the government keep hiring consultants they pay by the hour. They they act surprised when the consultants respond rationally to the incentives.
Or they agree to a fixed price contract where everyone knows the government will pay you more if you say you can't deliver and threaten to go bankrupt. Then they act surprised when the contractors respond rationally to the incentives.
The government needs to break projects down into smaller chunks, to mitigate the losses if a supplier doesn't deliver, you don't pay them, and they go bankrupt. Then they need to establish and enforce an incentive system where suppliers are punished, not rewarded, for failing to get the job done.
that means government getting an expertise (at least at the PM level) in that specific domain. While it wouldn't be a bad thing (and actually a very positive shift vs. current state of affairs), it would immediately hit the typical "government shouldn't be in the <insert specific domain> business".
Anyway, just to cheer you up - compare US Gov / DOD corruption & waste to the cost (i.e basically plunder) of Sochi Olympics in Russia. While making great strides, USG has still long way to go before making into top corruption league :)
If the big companies were allowed to fail, that would develop a market for others to enter who could succeed.
With gov't contracting, it is unrealistic to leave aside the political connections the companies have. It is simply unacceptable to the political crony class to allow one of their own to fail.
If the big companies were allowed to fail, maybe they'd stop underbidding on contracts to get them based on their reputation and smallest bid (knowing that there's no risk), and instead bid actual costing.
It is not clear to me how a custom system will solve any of the problems of the process. I'm not close enough to know, but the primary problem is probably entrenched bureaucracy that has been given no reason to change and perceives major threats-to-power if they change. A custom system seems more likely to exacerbate the problem than solve it by giving the entrenched bureaucracy even more knobs to demand they can twiddle (and knobs on the knobs, and knobs on those knobs....), though admittedly the fail is flowing so thickly here it would probably be impossible to distinguish the additional fail from the already stratospheric baseline.
An ancient and creaky administrative regime like what the military has is nearly impossible to manage financially. The GAO has tried and essentially given up on trying to audit.
The problem with Oracle and SAP is that they aren't "home builders" they are parts and tools salesmen. They don't know ANYTHING about BUILDING HOUSES... they just sell the tools. even their own businesses aren't actually GOOD businesses with huge amounts of nepotism and politics. The first thing when you sign up with them (or any of the big named software vendors) is that you have to find yourself a "contractor" just like building a house. The "big famous software company" disavow any actual results, your mileage may vary, etc.... They're like the "Music Man" selling boy's bands.
If you want to audit the military, that's where North Korea has the correct idea. Generals don't "retire" until the leader says they do. Start enforcing Sun Tzu style discipline to get this done... knock off a few 5 star general's heads. That'll get things done. At a minimum, strip them of private residences, and put them in boot camp barracks (complete with scrubbing their own floors) till they get this thing done.
When they passed Sarbane-Oxley they gave corporate executives just a few years to implement it. Don't implement it and we DELIST your stock. Implement it WRONG and go to jail. Needless to say, public traded companies worked VERY QUICKLY to get it done and fired people at will if they were in the way.
when the military needed to PAY people.... they got the job done well. that system celebrated 50 years of service getting checks out. So it's just a matter of getting all those disparate systems in line with the check writing system. Just nobody has the political will to accomplish it.
This is where the commander in chief not being able to summarily execute people in the military has it's drawbacks.. cause that's how Sun Tzu got the palace maids to properly military drill... do it right or get killed. Oldie but goodie.