Gov't contracting is, in economic terms, a rent-seeking business. The best and brightest in a given contracting firm are dedicated to pursuing new work. I work for a contractor, and my fun IT projects are all proof of concept items. Stellar execution simply isn't rewarded. The gov't puts idiots in charge of things: not idiots in the sense that they aren't smart, but idiots in the sense that they have no expertise in anything. They are hired for paper qualifications (ever heard of a Project Management Professional cert? It's what they hire, and its useless), and the bright/motivated ones move on to interesting work, perhaps in other parts of the gov't, or the private sector. I built a great tool, using all open source technology for the gov't once. I built it in 3 weeks (it is now officially gov't owned software), and it replaced an $80K piece of software (commercial off the shelf) that was inadequate for the task. My reward was complaints that the security people weren't familiar with Postgres, and an immediate request to migrate to Oracle. There was no functional reason for this, but I complied after the gov't shelled out huge sums of money for Oracle license. Why? Because paper pushing idiots in the gov't are in charge of IT security, and their credentials for the job are based entirely on passing certification tests. Their entire incentivization at their job is to minimize their own workload, rather than maximize the happiness of their gov't customers.

Do you think anybody who could even guage whether proper testing was being performed or not was in charge of this project from the gov't level? Of course not. If they had, it would have been properly tested.

I'm mad as hell about this because I want the ACA to succeed. I don't think its ideal, but its vastly better than the existing system of hospitals as clinics for the uninsured hordes.

The Federal gov't has an awful hiring process, and until it is fixed, you are lucky to encounter competent and driven individuals within it. You are foolish to expect it.