I had a similar almost to the letter conversation when I did some web work for a much smaller GIS firm back in the day, but wanted to add that in my experience this isn't just a google thing but an issue with governments and outsourcing in general.
Anecdotally, a close relative (and many others in her institute) designed entire curricula of learning modules for a government-owned nationwide technical college, back when online learning was newish, ~20 years ago (I think back when SCORM was fresh). These were tightly integrated into the traditional in-class offerings. A couple of years later a "trim the fat" government slashed internal capabilities and outsourced all "IT" hosting, management, etc.
All of the online learning modules (which would have cost millions in man-hours to develop) were literally handed over as "content" to a company who to this day offers them back to her institute under per-student licenses (that far exceed any "hosting" costs of these basically static resources) over a decade later. This company also profits off licensing to an array of pop-up online "institutes" that don't even approach the pedagogical context needed to ensure quality education outcomes from these resources.
Like a comedy of errors, from time to time some lecturer at her college will want to ask some question about the materials, their boss directs them to the company support (which is a paid service), after the issue escalates through the support tiers and they realise they need the expert knowledge of the author she'll get an email with the question, a process that can take days or weeks when the lecturer could have walked into the office next door and asked her directly, if the company hadn't stripped all author credits from the materials.
If the company decides to shift business models, or goes out of business, or is acquired and scuttled, these assets get blown to the winds.
There's a lot I could say about this situation, but essentially governments in general seem to devalue their assets at taxpayer expense, the IP of these assets could have been better handled rather than just giving it directly to the first company to win the contract all those years ago.
Anecdotally, a close relative (and many others in her institute) designed entire curricula of learning modules for a government-owned nationwide technical college, back when online learning was newish, ~20 years ago (I think back when SCORM was fresh). These were tightly integrated into the traditional in-class offerings. A couple of years later a "trim the fat" government slashed internal capabilities and outsourced all "IT" hosting, management, etc.
All of the online learning modules (which would have cost millions in man-hours to develop) were literally handed over as "content" to a company who to this day offers them back to her institute under per-student licenses (that far exceed any "hosting" costs of these basically static resources) over a decade later. This company also profits off licensing to an array of pop-up online "institutes" that don't even approach the pedagogical context needed to ensure quality education outcomes from these resources.
Like a comedy of errors, from time to time some lecturer at her college will want to ask some question about the materials, their boss directs them to the company support (which is a paid service), after the issue escalates through the support tiers and they realise they need the expert knowledge of the author she'll get an email with the question, a process that can take days or weeks when the lecturer could have walked into the office next door and asked her directly, if the company hadn't stripped all author credits from the materials.
If the company decides to shift business models, or goes out of business, or is acquired and scuttled, these assets get blown to the winds.
There's a lot I could say about this situation, but essentially governments in general seem to devalue their assets at taxpayer expense, the IP of these assets could have been better handled rather than just giving it directly to the first company to win the contract all those years ago.