Here's a very short and snappy explanation for why so much of the UK's government IT infrastructure is so fantastically, awfully bad: it's an RFP from a Northern Irish government business development fund for a "Content Management System to manage all Invest NI websites and intranets." Here's how they express their priorities:
IV.2.1)Award criteria
The most economically advantageous tender in terms of1. Price. Weighting 95
2. Quality. Weighting 5
This is for a 523 000 GBP contract, by the way.
(Thanks, Angie!)