Pitfalls for the Private Sector
So, why less work to the private sector when government print demands are increasing? It seems Congressional directives are not being followed. According to Title 44 of the U.S. Code enacted by Congress in 1813, all print procurement by executive, legislative and judiciary agencies must be ordered through the GPO, as opposed to through individual agencies. Now, though, a system is being created by GPO and agency administrators as they use waivers to channel GPO work directly to agency print shops, third-party creative agencies and contractors including those for the U.S. Department of Defense and other departments. Accountability is limited. No one knows how many agency print shops exist, and they certainly do not know how much print work is produced by them. We do know GPO work to the private sector is dropping. We also know that if the government were a private sector entity, the total amount of its print would be between $30 billion and $90 billion, not the $1 billion or so GPO either prints in-house or procures from the private sector.