State-level public works face different challenges than do larger federal public works when it comes to performing due diligence against surety-bond fraud. For federal contracts, prime contractors can require subcontractor bonds from Treasury-listed or A.M. Best-rated sureties and check the surety in a federal public database, which helps. State and local public works don't require the federal level of scrutiny,
and contracts between primes and subs are private, so due diligence mostly involves meetings and financial record reviews.