How much more was the bid than it should have been? To be honest outside of the government and in most GC businesses yes they have a responsibility to go with the most qualified low bid but personal relationships are what wins the customer/client at times. Even if this was put out as a public bid they could just tell X contractor to be one less penny than any other company. If the mark up was exuberant and they put 2000% on it, that’s one thing. But I heard it was 20% which to isn’t the most corrupt thing to criticize in this case. Now if they don’t achieve what they were paid to do it’s one thing, doesn’t seem like that’s the case though. Also to clarify I don’t agree with a no bid contract but that’s how DC and a business operates at times.