[wahern]

I think the issue in California is that this particular contractor's M.O. is notorious to state officials, but nobody has completed whatever formal processes are required to establish the contractor as disreputable, permitting officials to readily reject their bids in subsequent projects. There has to be a formal process because the whole point of anti-corruption regulations is to remove discretion from individual officials, but state officials aren't being diligent on the backend of that process.

The underbidding contractor is at least one half of the problem because they're serial fraudulent bidders--they have it down to a science. IMO they're flat out the problem from an ethical standpoint. You don't get to cheat somebody just because you've figured out how to exploit a victim's infirmity (the infirmity in this case being the state's bidding rules). You can't shift your blame to the victim; whatever blame the victim is due is independent.