The current policy of the United States Government is one of redundancy. When work is needing to be done, instead of charging the current employees with doing the work, a contractor is brought online to do the work. Understanding this is nothing new does not make it worth tax payer dollars.
A real world example is healthcare.gov - the US government employs more than enough qualified people to write a website, why did it cost 634 million dollars. How much went into the contractors pocket, and how much actually went into equipment, and infrastructure.
Why is there no a system for putting together a task force comprised of current employees (including military) before a contract is offered. We the People should be getting the most for our money from personnel that are already employed.