Wild speculation..
Until there is clarity of what is paid for what and the work involved I think you cannot judge the returned value of the project. It's all good and well to slap something together when you're bored (and credit for that), but until you know what exactly was specified and how it was executed it is pointless to judge it.
In addition, you also have to keep in mind that consultancies have spent over 2 decades buying skills out of government so that they could sell them back to government for a profit, and that includes the purchasing departments. How else do you think suppliers are able to get contracts with truck-sized holes for recovery in them? The net result is that anything the government wants to do will always cost up to twice as much as it should - they cannot afford to staff a project with contractors because they lack the people to lead them, so they fall back on the "let's find someone to blame" routine, which also has the benefit of finishing the budget (If they are economical with your money they won't get quite as much to play with the next year round)..
Yes, I'm a cynic. Why?