It would be different, of course, if intel were the bleeding edge of innovation.... but that hasn't been true for about twenty years. Maybe longer.
The mismanagement and waste come from a Congress more obsessed with its re-election and petty politics than it is actually running a gargantuan empire in a sustainable manner, not the agencies themselves, with one notable exception: the Department of Defense. That is a profoundly mismanaged and exploited department that drains valuable taxpayer money into fantasy boondoggles meant to get people promoted and swindle ever-more income from taxpayers in the process.
At the very least, the government should be the baseline option, with Capitalism competing against it on either efficiency or outcome, ideally both. Instead, what we have are Capitalist companies who game the system to extract more wealth for themselves and from each other, and demand the government cover their own mismanagement under the guise of “National Security.”
They cannot have it both ways. If they’re critical to the security of the country, they cannot exist as private enterprise. If they want maximum profit, then they cannot be of import to the government.
If you gave google the authority to jail customers who didn’t buy their services with 25% of income, even google might provide some customer service, but would surely provide better api’s.
It is one of the most cost effective agencies because their entire reason d'être is finding missing money and collecting it.
It doesn't really say anything about them being one of the most effective in the sense of good management and having minimal waste. I had to deal with them as an immigrant and it was a nightmare of wait times.