But most of the people in the dept are military who have no experience buying things or systems but do know the equipment.  But then again are only there for a posting of 2-3 years so take a while to be useful.  Then the civilian side, alot are ex military so pretty useful.  The other civil servants from my experience in early 90s  were pretty terrible.  Lets face it Engineers who join the public service are not the cream of the crop.  Many have no practical experience  and won't get any throughout their career.