Maybe it was my time in NYC--the sole commercial garbage service for the bookstore where I worked in 69,70 expected an extra $5 direct to the crew or despite paying the invoice nothing was collected. Maybe it was my Chicago lawyer grandfather's stories. Maybe it was simply a suggestion by a carpenter here in the Bay Area that if he recommended me as an electrician he expected a fee. Whatever combination, I am sadly not surprised by any of the corruption. Angered? you bet! It was considered a major reform in the Roman Empire when actual fees were published for government services. Previously it had been entirely whatever the civil servant could extort. The process had been one tried to obtain a posting with better chances of large fees as there was no direct salary. As to the Bechtels, they acted in what they perceived as the best interests of The Octopus in which they had equity interest. This is how capitalism (and predecessor predatory economic systems) function/have functioned since humans got together in hierarchical groupings. Occasionally, we manage a short period of restraint--the mostly no longer enforced Sherman and Clayton Acts for example--or more recently the RICO statutes which actually were invoked against BN by coal shippers several decades ago. That case IINM was settled so we have no precedent of applying what I consider extra Constitutional laws (designed to disposess minority drug/gambling businesses) to the bespoke suit crowd.
"Some folks rob you with a gun, some with a fountain pen..."

So, while I sadly agree w/ the...mouse on some issues, I will attempt not to allude to the mistakes in design from last century. Or in a far more crude comment, "its Chinatown, Jake...". That said, even the straight news media have commented on the money shenanigans involving Tutor-Perini. We will bewasting taxes paying off these inflated invoices long after I am cremated.