The "color of money" thing was so obnoxious when I was contracting in Iraq. They could easily spent essentially unlimited amounts for certain kinds of things which weren't needed, but then couldn't pay for other things (with less than a 6-24mo process to get new funds). I understand the fraud/misappropriation that would happen without such systems, it was very cumbersome. And due to "anti-deficiency act", it was illegal to just pay for it out of pocket and give them stuff for free, too.