I think you diffuse your own argument a bit there. It was a part of the government.
oddly enough government is not monolithic. Not only is it so big that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing it's so big that the right hand doesn't even KNOW that there is a left had (metaphorically speaking...in reality it's more like tentacles..)

Government agencies work at cross purposes all the time.
fun fact...the subcomponents of those agencies work at cross purposes within the agentcy too..etc ..etc...down to the phase change envelope of Dunbar's number.

Government is incredibly inefficient and wasteful..but you knew that.