At a certain Mil station with a lot of specialist vehicles for different climates, they are happy to replace a driveshaft complete - at a cost of many thousands of pounds - when a £1 oil seal from Halfords would have cured the problem.
A friend of mine runs a company with skills in specialist materials but doesn't come from an aviation background - he was told he should increase his prices to MoD because they were too low.
The problems with waste in procurement are endemic and go from grass roots level to the top.