Chesterton's Fence, no?

Why are real-estate transactions complex and full of paperwork? Because there are history books filled with fraud. There are other types of large transactions that also involve a lot of paperwork too, for the same reason.

Why does a company have extensive internal tracing of the progress of their business processes, and those of their customers? Same reason, usually. People want accountability and they want to discourage embezzlement and such things.