system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do all government-negotiated contracts with businesses in the UK seem to be ridiculously bad value for money?

Every government contract that makes the news seems to involve giving some companies inordinate amounts of money to do a shitty job, and recently with clauses preventing future governments from ending or changing the contracts. Is the government truly the worst negotiator in the business world, or is it just media hype?
gpt
1 -  not all of them are, you hear about the overspends and failures disproportionately to the successes that come in on time and/or under budget. 

2 -  change requests. A bud is received and accepted for X work. When it comes time to produce X the users are involved and note a few things they will need that are not in the original bid, perhaps not designed correctly or a change on regulations or a new law that has been implemented between bid time and production time. Capita /Serco et al know how the government works, so they bid low, beating out other bidders. But they know they will make it back on change requests, these costs are much higher than they need to be but are usually not a major consideration in bid assessment.