I think it all gets back to money. Contractors hire the cheapest labor they can get away with and inspectors carry too much workload to look at everything. We are a cost conscious society and we will sacrifice some quality for a cheaper price.
When I was inspecting I got a little push back about the time I spent on the jobs but travel time was still much higher than actua inspection time most of the time. I just told them they paid for 2+ hours of travel, don't they want more than a 2 minute peek at the job?
At the time municipal inspectors were leaving the shop with 30 or 40 inspection cards every day. How much could they be looking at?
I worked for the state with a much smaller workload but it spanned 6 counties.
