bad contracts, bad consulting. How to change?

Last year, the consulting branch of a university was hired to redesign and rebuild one of our main systems (I work for the government). Deadlines were missed, but the system is now “operational”, but it doesn?t get close to user needs.

I found out that the system construction started without any documented specification approved by our management. So, today it seems there is no point for arguments like “This was in the scope!”. As I mentioned, it was delivered much less than needed or expected.

Do you have any suggestions on how this could be changed? Unfortunatelly it seems the consulting manageres main concern is how to get their money, instead of how to help our organization improve.