If any of this is true (I tend to believe the person willing to put a face and a name to what they're saying, but I appreciate this fits nicely with your own bias so you're likely not to worry about how true it is), all it shows me is what an utter f*cking shambles our civil service is.
Why would we fly a plane to Turkey on Monday to pick the stuff up, but not put the order in til 6 days later? It doesn't make any sense to me.