From my experience with the german government, it is more the bureaucracy that is the issue and not government per se. And that bureaucrcy, on the governmen side, wasn't that far of from what I saw in companies like Siemens back the day.
I think government is just sitting on the extreme end of bloated bureaucracy, with everthing defense related taking the cake.
And the voters will easily vote for more of such bureaucracy, wrapped in words about controlling spending, avoiding corruption, preventing money going to few private contractors, ensuring cheapest bid wins, etc. etc.
This is combined with how various voter-friendly "cheap government" initiatives go on for all kinds of internal purchases, not just big dollar projects like this.
Printers that needs servicing all the time because "cheapest bid" means you have low-quality shady consumables used.
Cars that end up constantly in service because the provider is cheap and thus couldn't do the right job servicing a Land Rover Discovery 2, taking away critical machine for reaching accident sites for aviation accident investigation.
Purchase of new cars for the same org and purpose - the freshly elected government leaked "appropriate" story to one of the newer tabloids to make it look like excess that they are curbing.
I still tell the story of SCAAI investigator buying a plane ticket for international flight because office responsible for finances in appropriate ministry refused to arrange diplomatic courier. So an investigator booked an international flight, left the plane, gave the CD full of confidential data to his local counterpart, turned 180 and went back to the same plane back.
I think government is just sitting on the extreme end of bloated bureaucracy, with everthing defense related taking the cake.