[olliej]

In California at least there were ballot iniatives that mean the CA government must go with the lowest bid, even if it is from a company that has consistently run far over budget.

Honestly I feel the solution to this is: lowest bid, but the company cannot charge more than their bid and needs to have completion/bankruptcy insurance. That way companies that routinely under bid will go bankrupt/have the bankruptcy insurance bills increase until it becomes unprofitable to underbid.