In fact they do. Barely any development FOR the french government is done internally, all is externalized to "specialized" extern private companies (a known exemple Cap Gemini).
I wouldn't call them clowns, and they do have competent people but they totally do focus more on public money extraction than on quality, like nearly all monopoly position companies. Results are sometime good sometime not.
It's starting to change, though. In fact, it's very frustrating that the french government keeps delegating projects to SSII consultants long after it's built up its own very competent open-source-friendly developer workforce.
