I worked for the Federal government for close to 30 years and this isn't that far off. What really happens though is they do competitive bidding, and the low bidder ends up submitting all kinds of "claims" that ends up driving the total cost higher than the original high bidder. All the government contractors have excellent attorneys who comb the contracts looking for loopholes and other ways they can get more money. Here in New York, I saw a new form of fraud. A private "non-profit" group got funding to construct the "Walkway Over the Hudson". It was around 36 million dollars. Should have cost 5 or 6 million. At the time, I thought, if they are that stupid, then I guess they can waste all their own money if they want. But soon after construction was completed, the whole thing was turned over to the State, with the state now assuming the 36 million dollar tab. I'm sure this was the plan all along, with contractors getting paid an order of magnitude more than what it really cost, with the "non-profit" group making a tidy sum in the process. I tried to get an investigation into it here, but of course, being such a corrupt state, nothing happened.