What I was referring to is not so much an audio industry problem but whenever there is weak accountability for spending "other people's money". Fraud is rampant in areas of our economy where government spending is significant. Medicare billing is often in the news as they catch the most blatant high profile over-billing abuses, but for every one they catch, how many less obvious frauds get away with it? And these are mature programs with established anti-fraud divisions dealing with trusted professionals like doctors.
I'm sure 2015 will be better (/sarcasm)...
JR
PS: FWIW we individuals are rarely competent to second guess professionals we hire to do specialized work for us, otherwise we would just do the work ourselves. The best mechanism to deter bad actors is sharing information with other customers in the market for their services. If we tolerate bad performance in silence we make it easier for them to do the same to others.
One of my projects this next year is to look at a room (9,000,000.00) budget that was designed by one of the most respected names in the industry, complete with physical variable acoustics.
It is a performing art space.
The "caretaker" of the space said it includes a line array that was installed sideways and has every other speaker tied together.
The space is only 500 seats- so a line array is the "perfect choice"-especially when flown sideways.
He said the "design firm" came into the room and listened and said it was fine. He said (as far as he knows) they never measured anything or even got into the DSP to make any on site adjustments.
The reason I am being called in is because they are not happy with the system.
So just because somebody hires "the best in the business" and spends lots of money does not mean they will get the results they were looking for.
I have not been on site yet-so it should be an interesting "documentation" and adjustment experience.