[_delirium]

Well, you apparently haven't seen much of how enterprise contracting works. Companies can easily blow $100m+ on bespoke software development that produces crappy results and still be in business. Companies like Exxon, BP, etc. could, and do, waste billions and not go out of business. Sometimes they spend tens of millions and get nothing delivered at all, or scrap the result. And the incentives within the megacorp are fairly similar to what you describe: managers who are the worst at managing budgets get their group's budget increased, because they can argue to the relevant VP that they need more money for whatever boondoggle they're currently working on. Not spending your money is more of a problem, because it means you're less important.

I assume it's the same outside of oil as well, but I know the most about that sector. Someone elsewhere in this discussion mentions that the NYTimes paywall cost $40m to implement!