One of the areas where this seems to have happened is at the NSA, which usually keeps its contracts very secret, but due to William Binney's whistleblowing, it was revealed that the inexpensive solution (ThinThread) was passed over in favor of the expensive solution (TrailBlazer).

https://whistleblower.org/whistleblower-profiles/thinthread-...

Part of the problem here is that the government actors selecting the contracts also want more money flowing through their agency, and they seem to get kickbacks in the form of 'retirement positions' with the very private contractors they're directing contracts to.