Having worked for a municipal water system, no, they are not incompetent when engineers are at the helm. Corruption I saw was related to giving small incidental work to friends, some weird politics sometimes, but that was about it.

More importantly: everyone understood our job wasn’t to make money, we were foundational to our city’s livelihood & health, that of our neighbors, our mother’s and brothers. Quality was job 1, and I really do mean that. Could we have moved faster and for less money? Maybe. But I’m glad we picked doing the job right over doing it fast.