In ordinary business transactions in the private sector, a single botched contract that causes the company to suffer huge penalties would see heads rolling pretty fast, with a potential for recovery of lost money. Yet in the government, cancelling contracts with the attendant costs being borne by the taxpayer has been turned into a sport.

New administrations at both the national and county governments would cancel a contract on very flimsy grounds, only to re-tender the same project months later, sometimes at a higher contract price.