Thank you for saying this. I think there is a deeply distrustful aspect to how the public views these contracts, probably because a few bad actors (as you noted) have in fact screwed the people from time to time. Also people tend to associate these bid contracts with politicians in power who they may dislike for one reason or another therefore further tainting their opinion of the bid system.

The distrust of government and corporations in our society is one of the biggest problems facing us as we go forward in the 21st century. We need to figure out how to restore trust.