[Bartweiss]

This is exactly the problem. When you have a system that completely ignores inefficiency/overhead but goes berserk over fraud, you get totally absurd incentives. Those 1350 pages probably kept some managers from getting fired, but realistically have been a serious waste of time and money.

At a certain point, you either accept a low level of fraud or just make a rule saying "don't do bad, wasteful stuff." Then you fire anyone who breaks that rule and let things work themselves out. (This has other problems, but they can be addressed.)

Most of bureaucratic stupidity is ultimately moral hazard. Someone pays for one failure case but not another, so they spend absurd amounts minimizing what they're responsible for.