Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at an Ottawa government owned house:
One is from Vancouver , another is from Toronto and the third, is from St. John's, NFLD .
All three go with a Government official to examine the fence.
The Vancouver contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. "Well," he says, "I figure the job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me."
The Toronto contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, "I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me. "The NFLD contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the government official and whispers, "$2,700."
The official, incredulous, says, "You didn't even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?" The NFLD contractor whispers back, "$1,000 for me, $1,000 for you, and we hire the guy from Toronto to fix the fence." "Done!" replies the government official. And that, my friends, is how government contracting works !
And it's the same which ever country or state you may be in.