[rossmohax]

Problem with that is government is worst customer: don't know what they want, what they have and how to get anything done. It is very hard for companies to commit to deliverables, when incompetent department they need to integrate with doesn't play the ball.

[g_p]

Indeed, however this approach effectively offers them a carrot - if you understand your problem, you can use this (very effective and well regarded) route to getting your problem fixed.

The end result, as you'd expect, is mission-focused solutions to problems with minimal external dependencies. That means the problem gets solved in the simplest way possible, with the least overlap with incompetency possible.

It doesn't work for every problem, but it does show that forcing government to understand the problem before spending money can actually work, at least at some scale.