Spoken like someone who has never worked on a government contract. Who do you think is responsible for making sure there is enough oversight, or would add requirements at the last minute resulting in cost overrun? Hint: NOT the contractors.
You're right, it is a project management issue, but likely not with the contractors.
As far as transparency is concerned, govt. contracts, particularly those required to be CMMI compliant, have documentation and transparency requirements that would shock most commercial software developers.