None-outsourced government IT projects aren't any better.

We decide to install system X so we need to hire some experts in system X. But system X experts are expensive and if we hire them as staff they are paid according to fixed internal pay scales - or there is a hiring freeze - or we have to hire 'internal candidates" from other government branches first.

So we hire consultants. These are a lot more expensive. Then part way through the project there is an investigation into how much "external consultants' are costing. So there is a ban on external consultants which the government shows has saved us $$$ million.

The result of course is that we have a half-implemented system X that costs us $$$$million and doesn't work.