It seems that the logic is: "We know this will go bad, are we capable of taking PR hit when (not if) this goes bad". Many companies failed that risk assessment. IBM concluded - "Yes, let's make a run for the money. We are likely doomed for failure, but this will not damage us.". I hope I'm just overly cynical...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/phoenix-ibm-contract-un...
Few if any 'integrators' will touch these projects.