The dark side of HIPs

Home Information Packs.  A completely useless, expensive pieces of government bureaucracy.  And now it seems they were devised, in part, by a man with a clear conflicts of interest - according to a National Audit Office study. 

It had always struck me as odd that the original purpose of HIPs was to speed up the house-buying process by providing the same level of information for all properties.  However when it was watered down to a virtually unrecognisable state at implementation it was all about energy efficiency.  Now the reason for this is becoming clear.  The NAO study found that the Government had employed two consultants to advise on Hips who also had a stake in National Energy Services (NES), a company that wanted to certify home inspectors.  And there was me thinking this was a poorly thought out policy, when actually all along it was a brilliant piece of underhand skulduggery.  

Two questions:  Why did the government employ consultant's with such a clear conflict of interest?  And why did the NAO not look in to this months ago when it might have some actual impact and prevented implementation rather than acting as an after thought that will be swept under the carpet.