Whence the incompetence?

The incompetence of this administration is simply mind boggling:

WASHINGTON - The government overpaid by 20 percent on a $39.5 million, no-bid Hurricane Katrina contract for portable classrooms because the Army Corps of Engineers passed up chances to negotiate a lower price, a federal audit says.

The question is are they incompetent because they're fools or are they incompetent because their ideology forces these kinds of decisions?