a

GAO

United States General Accounting Office

Report to Congressional Addressees

June 2004 GOVERNMENT 

PRINTING OFFICE

Actions to Strengthen 

and Sustain GPO’s 

Transformation

GAO-04-830
www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-830.

To view the full product, including the scope 

and methodology, click on the link above. 

For more information, contact J. Christopher 

Mihm at (202) 512-6806 or mihmj@gao.gov. 

Highlights of GAO-04-830, a report to the 

Chairmen and Ranking Minority Members, 

Committee on Appropriations, U.S. 

Senate, and Subcommittee on Legislative 

Branch, Committee on Appropriations, 

U.S. Senate 

June 2004

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

Actions to Strengthen and Sustain GPO's 

Transformation 

Federal government printing and dissemination are changing due to the 

underlying changes to the technological environment. The Public Printer and 

his leadership team understand the effects of this technological change on 

GPO and have begun an ambitious effort to transform GPO and reexamine 

its mission. Federal agencies are publishing more documents directly to the 

Web and are doing more of their printing and dissemination of information 

without using GPO services. At the same time, the public is obtaining 

government information from government Web sites such as GPO Access 

rather than purchasing paper copies. As a result, GPO has seen declines in 

its printing volumes, printing revenues, and document sales. To assist in the 

transformation process under way at GPO, GAO convened a panel of 

printing and information dissemination experts, who developed a series of 

options for GPO to consider in its strategic planning. The panel suggested 

that GPO 

• develop a business plan to focus its mission on information 

dissemination as its primary goal, rather than printing; 

• demonstrate to its customers the value it can provide; 

• improve and extend partnerships with agencies to help establish itself as 

an information disseminator; and 

• ensure that its internal operations are adequate for efficient and effective 

management of core business functions and for service to its customers.

GPO can also use other key practices that GAO identified to help agencies 

successfully transform, such as involving employees to obtain their ideas 

and gain their ownership for the transformation. GPO fully applied one of 

these practices, related to ensuring that top management drives the 

transformation, and has partially implemented each of the remaining eight 

practices. To fully implement the remaining practices, GPO needs to take 

actions including establishing its mission and strategic goals and developing 

a documented plan for its transformation. 

GPO has taken some initial steps to adopt the best practices of other public 

and private sector organizations, most notably with respect to human capital 

management. GPO is actively implementing the recommendations GAO 

made in October 2003 (see GAO-04-85). For example, GPO reorganized the 

human capital office into customer-focused teams devoted to meeting the 

human capital needs of GPO’s operating units. Continued leadership 

attention is needed to build on the initial progress made in information 

technology and financial management. For example, GPO should implement 

an information technology investment management process to help 

management choose, monitor, and evaluate projects, and GPO should train 

its line managers to effectively use financial data. 

The transformation of the 

Government Printing Office (GPO) 

is under way. This report captures 

the results of our efforts over the 

past year to assess and help 

strengthen GPO’s transformation 

and strategic planning efforts. It is 

the final part of GAO’s response to 

both a mandate requiring GAO to 

examine the current state of 

printing and dissemination of 

public government information and 

a congressional request that we 

conduct a general management 

review of GPO focusing on that 

GPO’s transformation and 

management. 

To further GPO’s transformation 

and build on the actions already 

taken by GPO’s leaders, GAO is 

recommending that GPO leaders 

take steps to improve planning and 

goal setting for the transformation. 

GAO is also recommending that 

GPO begin adopting leading 

practices of world-class 

organizations in financial 

management and information 

technology management. 

We provided a draft of this report 

in June 2004 to the Public Printer 

for review and comment. The 

Public Printer agreed with our 

findings and recommendations and 

noted that this report will be a 

major part of GPO’s transformation 

process. 
Page i GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Contents

Letter 1

Results in Brief 3

Background 5

Government Printing and Dissemination Changes Are Forcing GPO’s 

Transformation 10

GPO Has Made the Case for Change, but Actions to Advance 

Transformation Needed 23

World-Class Management Practices Can Strengthen GPO’s 

Transformation 47

Concluding Observations 63

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 63

Appendixes

Appendix I: Scope and Methodology 66

Appendix II: Comments from the Government Printing Office 69

Appendix III: Executive Agency Satisfaction with GPO Services 71

Level of Satisfaction with GPO Term Contracts 73

Level of Satisfaction with GPO Procurement Purchasing 74

Level of Satisfaction with GPO Regional Print Procurement 75

Level of Satisfaction with GPO Information Dissemination 76

Level of Satisfaction with GPO Customer Services 77

Appendix IV: Panel of Experts 80

Tables Table 1: Status of GPO’s Adoption of Key Practices Associated with 

Transformations 4

Table 2: Printing, Binding, and Related Services Provided to the 

Congress and Federal Agencies for Fiscal Year 2003 6

Table 3: Executive Agency Familiarity with GPO Services 15

Table 4: Executive Agency Level of Satisfaction with GPO 

Services 16

Table 5: Satisfaction with Products and Services 72

Table 6: Agency Print Officers’ Ratings of GPO Term Contracts 74

Table 7: Agency Print Officers’ Ratings of GPO Procurement 

Purchasing 75

Table 8: Agency Print Officers’ Ratings of GPO Regional 

Procurement 76

Table 9: Agency Print Officers’ Ratings of GPO Information 

Dissemination 77
Contents

Page ii GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Table 10: Agency Ratings of GPO Customer Services 78

Table 11: Agency Ratings of Most Recent Experience with GPO 

Customer Services 79

Figures Figure 1: GPO Retained Earnings for Fiscal Years 1998–2003 11

Figure 2: GPO Revolving Fund Activities Accumulated Losses to 

Retained Earnings for Fiscal Years 1999–2003 (Dollars in 

Millions) 12

Figure 3: GPO Revenues and Expenses from Sales of Publications 

for Fiscal Years 1999–2003 13

Figure 4: GPO’s Organization as of June 2004 26

Figure 5: Banner Displayed at GPO’s Pueblo Document 

Distribution Center 32

Figure 6: Achieving Best Practices in Financial Management 58

Abbreviations

CFO Chief Financial Officer

CHCO Chief Human Capital Officer

CIO Chief Information Officer

COO Chief Operating Officer

DLC Depository Library Council

ECO Employee Communications Office

FDLP Federal Depository Library Program

GPO Government Printing Office

GPRA Government Performance and Accountability Act

IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

IT Information Technology

NDIIPP National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation 

Program

OMB Office of Management and Budget

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Page 1 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

United States General Accounting Office

Washington, D.C. 20548

A

June 30, 2004 Letr

The Honorable Ted Stevens

Chairman

The Honorable Robert C. Byrd

Ranking Minority Member

Committee on Appropriations

United States Senate

The Honorable Ben Nighthorse Campbell 

Chairman 

The Honorable Richard J. Durbin 

Ranking Minority Member 

Subcommittee on Legislative Branch 

Committee on Appropriations 

United States Senate

The transformation of the Government Printing Office (GPO) has begun. 

The trend towards producing government documents through electronic 

publishing technology and providing public government documents 

through the Internet has affected all of GPO's programs, reducing the 

production, procurement, and sales of printed products. These have 

historically provided GPO with a vital source of revenue to supplement its 

annual appropriation. GPO is making operational and cultural changes to 

help ensure that it stays relevant and efficient, and that it meets its 

customers’ needs.

This report encompasses our body of work on GPO from the past year and 

responds to both (1) a mandate from the Senate Committee on 

Appropriations, included in Senate Report 107-209, to examine the current 

state of printing and dissemination of federal government information and 

provide strategic options for GPO to enhance the efficiency, economy, and 

effectiveness of its printing and dissemination operations and (2) your 

request that we conduct a general management review of GPO to focus on 

GPO’s efforts to transform. The Subcommittee requested that the general 

management review be done in conjunction with the committee’s 

mandated review. We have issued several products in response to and 

based on the legislative mandate and request, including briefings on the 

current printing and dissemination operations at GPO, the results of a 

panel discussion on the future role of GPO and a survey of executive 

branch agencies’ use of GPO services, and selected approaches for 

workforce restructuring at GPO. We have also issued a report containing 
Page 2 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

recommendations to assist GPO’s transformation through strategic human 

capital management efforts and a congressional testimony outlining 

technological changes affecting GPO’s mission.

This report summarizes and, as appropriate, expands upon and updates our 

earlier work. First, in response to the Senate Committee’s mandate, we 

describe the current state of printing and dissemination of federal 

government information, which is based on a survey of GPO’s executive 

branch customers and a panel of experts who discussed (1) trends in 

printing, publishing, and dissemination and (2) the future role of GPO. 

Second, our general management review focused on actions GPO’s 

leadership has taken and can take to transform itself and develop a 

strategic plan, and how GPO can work towards building a world-class 

organization.

In completing the general management review, we used as the analytical 

framework for collecting data and reviewing GPO’s transformational 

efforts the key practices and implementation steps for mergers and 

organizational transformations that we had previously developed.1

We performed our work from March 2003 through June 2004. During this 

time we worked cooperatively with GPO leaders, meeting regularly with 

them about the progress of their transformation initiatives and providing 

them with information that they plan to use to develop GPO’s strategic plan 

and strengthen management. For the general management review 

examining GPO’s transformational efforts, we followed generally accepted 

government auditing standards. Because the nature of the work in 

response to the mandate was future oriented and focused on technological 

developments, not organizational management, we determined that it could 

not be considered an audit subject to generally accepted government 

auditing standards. However, in our approach to the work, we followed 

appropriate quality control procedures consistent with the generally 

accepted standards. For additional information on our scope and 

methodology, see appendix I.

1

U.S. General Accounting Office, Results-Oriented Cultures: Implementation Steps to 

Assist Mergers and Organizational Transformations, GAO-03-669 (Washington, D.C.: 

July 2, 2003), and Highlights of a GAO Forum: Mergers and Transformation: Lessons 

Learned for a Department of Homeland Security and Other Federal Agencies, GAO-03-

293SP (Washington, D.C.: Nov. 14, 2002).
Page 3 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Results in Brief Printing and dissemination in the federal government, as in private 

industry, are being transformed by the changing technological 

environment. Documents are increasingly being created and disseminated 

electronically, sometimes without ever being printed on paper. Federal 

agencies are publishing more documents directly to the Web and are doing 

more of their printing and dissemination of information directly, without 

using GPO services. At the same time, as more and more government 

documents are being created and managed electronically, the public is 

obtaining government information from government Web sites, such as 

GPO Access (http://www.gpoaccess.gov), rather than purchasing paper 

copies of government documents. As a result, GPO has seen declines in its 

printing volumes, printing revenues, and document sales. The agency’s 

procured printing business has experienced a loss of $15.8 million over the 

past 5 years. The sales program lost $77 million over the same period. In 

addition, these changes are creating challenges for GPO’s long-standing 

structure for centralized printing and dissemination and its interactions 

with customer agencies.

The Public Printer recognizes these challenges and in response has 

embarked upon an ambitious transformation. To assist in this effort, a 

panel of printing and dissemination experts that we convened provided a 

number of suggestions for GPO to consider as it transforms itself. The 

panel suggested that GPO do the following:

• Develop a business plan focused on information dissemination as its 

primary goal, rather than printing. 

• Collect data to demonstrate that the services it provides—printing and 

publishing as well as information dissemination to the public through its 

library system and Web site—add value. 

• Establish partnerships with other agencies that disseminate information 

and enhance its current partnerships. 

• Ensure that its internal operations—including technology, how it does 

business with its customers, management information systems, and 

training—are adequate for efficient and effective management of core 

business functions and for service to its customers.

In its efforts to transform, GPO can use the nine key practices listed below 

that we identified in previous work. One of these practices, related to 
Page 4 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

ensuring that top management drives the transformation, has already been 

fully applied by GPO’s leadership, and GPO has begun to implement each of 

the remaining eight practices. To fully implement the remaining practices, 

GPO will need to take additional actions, such as establishing its mission 

and strategic goals and developing a plan for its transformation. The status 

of GPO’s efforts with respect to the key transformation practices is 

summarized in table 1.

Table 1: Status of GPO’s Adoption of Key Practices Associated with Transformations

Source: GAO.

Throughout this report, we make recommendations to assist GPO with the 

implementation of the eight practices that have not been completely 

implemented. 

Practice GPO status

Ensure top leadership drives the transformation. GPO has fully implemented this practice through the Public Printer’s 

actions to make a clear and compelling case for transforming GPO. 

He has also established an organizational structure to help balance 

transformation with the delivery of services.

Establish a coherent mission and integrated strategic goals to 

guide the transformation.

GPO has not established a mission and strategic goals; however, 

GPO has set goals for its individual operating units, which help to 

create a more results-oriented culture.

Focus on a key set of principles and priorities at the outset of the 

transformation.

GPO has not adopted a set of agencywide principles or core values; 

however, a GPO unit has benefited from establishing core values.

Set implementation goals and a timeline to build momentum and 

show progress from day one. 

GPO has not established specific time frames and goals for its 

transformation; however, it has planned some initial steps to show 

progress.

Dedicate an implementation team to manage the transformation 

process.

GPO’s management council focuses on transformational issues, but 

attention to the daily activities of the transformation could be 

strengthened.

Use the performance management system to define the 

responsibility and assure accountability for change.

GPO is developing a new performance management system for its 

executives, but needs to complete its strategic plan before it can 

align performance expectations with organizational goals.

Establish a communication strategy to create shared expectations 

and report related progress.

GPO leadership has communicated early and often, ensured 

consistency of message, and encouraged two-way communication. 

However, employees want additional information to meet their 

specific needs.

Involve employees to obtain their ideas and gain ownership for the 

transformation.

GPO has informed employees of changes, but has the opportunity to 

more fully involve them in the transformation. 

Build a world-class organization. GPO has taken steps to apply best practices in human capital, 

information technology, and financial management, but significant 

challenges remain.
Page 5 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

GPO leadership has articulated a vision to transform GPO into a worldclass organization and has taken some initial steps toward this objective, 

most notably with respect to human capital management. GPO’s Human 

Capital Office is using our October 2003 report2

 as GPO’s roadmap for 

transforming its human capital management and is actively implementing 

the recommendations we made. For example, the Human Capital Office 

reorganized into customer-focused teams devoted to meeting the human 

capital needs of GPO’s operating units.3

 With respect to information 

technology and financial management, GPO has taken initial steps towards 

improvement, but continued leadership attention is needed. For example, 

the Chief Information Officer (CIO) is issuing new security-related policies 

and procedures in response to problems identified by an external audit 

organization, and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) has adopted the best 

practice of regularly providing financial information to GPO’s key decision 

makers. We make recommendations to GPO leadership to build on its 

progress by further adopting best practices in the areas of information 

technology and financial management. For example, GPO should 

implement an information technology investment management process to 

help management choose, monitor, and evaluate projects. With regard to 

financial management, GPO needs to train its line managers to effectively 

use the financial data that they receive from the CFO.

We provided a draft of this report on June 9, 2004 to the Public Printer for 

review and comment. We received written comments from the Public 

Printer, which are reprinted in appendix II. The Public Printer agreed with 

the content, findings, and recommendations of the draft report, noting that 

our report will be a major part of GPO’s transformation process. GPO also 

provided minor technical clarifications, which we incorporated as 

appropriate in this report.

Background GPO’s mission includes both printing government documents and 

disseminating them to the public. Under the public printing and documents 

statutes of Title 44 of the U.S. Code, GPO’s mission is to fulfill the printing 

2

U.S. General Accounting Office, Government Printing Office: Advancing GPO’s 

Transformation Effort through Strategic Human Capital Management, GAO-04-85

(Washington, D.C.: Oct. 20, 2003).

3

GPO’s six operating units are the Customer Services division; Information Dissemination 

division; plant operations division; office of information technology and systems; office of 

human capital; and office of finance and administration.
Page 6 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

needs of the federal government and to distribute those printed products to 

the public. All printing for the Congress, the executive branch, and the 

judiciary—except for the Supreme Court—is to be done or contracted by 

GPO except for authorized exemptions.4

 The Superintendent of 

Documents, who heads GPO’s Information Dissemination division, 

disseminates these government products to the public through a system of 

nearly 1,300 depository libraries nationwide (the Federal Depository 

Library Program), GPO’s Web site (GPO Access), telephone and fax 

ordering, an on-line ordering site, and its bookstore in Washington, D.C. 

The Superintendent of Documents is also responsible for classification and 

bibliographic control of tangible and electronic government publications.

Printing and related services. In providing printing and binding services 

to the government, GPO generally dedicates its in-house printing 

equipment to congressional printing, contracting out most printing for the 

executive branch.5

 Table 2 shows the costs of these services in fiscal year 

2003, as well as the source of these printing services.

Table 2: Printing, Binding, and Related Services Provided to the Congress and 

Federal Agencies for Fiscal Year 2003 

Source: GPO.

Documents printed for the Congress include the Congressional Record, 

hearing transcripts, bills, resolutions, amendments, and committee reports, 

among other things. GPO also provides publishing support staff to the 

Congress. These support staff mainly perform print preparation activities, 

4

44 U.S.C. §501. Departments, agencies, or their components may be exempted from the 

provisions of Title 44 by having (1) their own authorized printing plant approved by the Joint 

Committee on Printing, (2) a statutory exemption, or (3) a waiver from the Joint Committee 

on Printing to procure printing without going through GPO.

5

Among the printing it performs in house for executive agencies is the Federal Register.

Dollars in millions

Printing source

Billings for 

congressional services

Billings for federal 

agency services

Produced at in-house printing plant $72.6 $94.9 

Procured from private sector 1.4 474.7 

Total $74.0 $569.6 
Page 7 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

such as typing, scanning, proofreading, and preparation of electronic data 

for transmission to GPO. 

GPO generally provides printing services to federal agencies through an 

acquisition program that relies on the commercial sector by passing the 

contractors’ costs on to its government customers. Prequalified businesses, 

small to large in size, compete for printing jobs that GPO printing experts 

oversee to ensure that the contractors meet customer requirements for 

quality. For this service, GPO attaches a 7 percent surcharge that GPO 

officials have stated was established partly by what the market will bear 

and partly by what is needed to cover GPO expenses. GPO procures about 

83 percent of printing for federal agencies from private contractors and 

does the remaining 17 percent at its own plant facilities. Most of the 

procured printing jobs (85 percent for the period from June 2002 to May 

2003) were for under $2,500 each.

Besides printing, GPO provides a range of services to agencies including, 

for example, CD-ROM development and production, archiving/storage, 

converting products to electronic format, Web hosting, and Web page 

design and development. 

Dissemination of government information. The Superintendent of 

Documents is responsible for the acquisition, classification, dissemination, 

and bibliographic control of tangible and electronic government 

publications. Regardless of the printing source, Title 44 requires that 

federal agencies make all their publications available to the Superintendent 

of Documents for cataloging and distribution. 

The Superintendent of Documents manages a number of programs related 

to distribution, including the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), 

which provides copies of government publications to libraries across the 

country for public use.6

 Generally, documents distributed to the libraries 

are those that contain information on U.S. government activities or are 

6

Examples of other distribution-related programs are the International Exchange Service, 

administered by GPO on behalf of the Library of Congress, to exchange U.S. government 

publications for foreign government publications, which can then be made available to the 

public; the By-Law Distribution program, which supports the requirements of executive 

agencies and the Congress by providing publications prescribed by statute free of charge to 

authorized recipients; and Agency Distribution Services, which support the requirements of 

executive branch agencies for distribution of publications through the performance or 

procurement of mail list distribution or order-fulfillment services. 
Page 8 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

important reference publications. GPO evaluates documents to determine 

whether they should be disseminated to the depository libraries. When 

documents are printed through GPO, it evaluates them at the time of 

printing; if documents are not printed through GPO, agencies are to notify 

GPO of these documents, so that it can evaluate them and arrange to 

receive any copies needed for distribution. A relatively small percentage of 

the items printed through GPO for the executive branch are designated as 

depository items. 

Another distribution program under the Superintendent of Documents is 

the Sales of Publications Program, which purchases, warehouses, sells, and 

distributes government documents. Publications are sold by mail, 

telephone, and fax; through GPO’s on-line bookstore; and at its bookstore 

in Washington, D.C. In addition, GPO provides electronic copies of the 

Congressional Record and other documents to the Congress, the public, 

and the depository libraries in accordance with the Government Printing 

Office Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act of 1993.

The Superintendent of Documents is also responsible for GPO’s Web site, 

GPO Access, which is one mechanism for electronic dissemination of 

government documents to the public through links to over 268,000 

individual titles on GPO’s servers and other federal Web sites. More than 2 

billion documents have been retrieved by the public from GPO Access 

since August 1994; almost 372 million downloads of government 

information from GPO Access were made in fiscal year 2002 alone. About 

two-thirds of new FDLP titles are available online. 

GPO Is Funded by 

Appropriations and by a 

Revolving Fund

GPO receives funding from two appropriations: (1) the Congressional 

Printing and Binding Appropriation, which is used for in-house printing of 

congressional activities and (2) the Salaries and Expenses Appropriation, 

which is used for certain Superintendent of Documents activities. 

In addition to these appropriations, GPO has a business-oriented revolving 

fund, which is used to fund its procured printing, document sales, and 

other operations. The revolving fund was designed to financially “break 

even” by recovering costs through rates, prices, and other charges to 

customers for goods and services provided by GPO. The revolving fund is 

supported by the 7 percent service charge levied on agency customers of 

GPO-procured printing services and also receives funds from sales of 

publications to the general public. 
Page 9 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Trends in Printing and 

Information Dissemination 

Current printing industry trends show that the total volume of printed 

material has been declining for the past few years, and this trend is 

expected to continue. A major factor in this declining volume is the use of 

electronic media options. The move to electronic dissemination is the 

latest phase in the electronic publishing revolution that has transformed 

the printing industry in recent decades. This revolution was driven by the 

development of increasingly sophisticated electronic publishing (“desktop 

publishing”) software, run on personal computers, that allows users to 

design documents including both images and text, and the parallel 

development of electronic laser printer/copier technology with capabilities 

that approach those of high-end presses. These tools allow users to 

produce documents that formerly would have required professional 

printing expertise and large printing systems.

These technologies have brought major economic and industrial changes to 

the printing industry. As electronic publishing software becomes 

increasingly sophisticated, user-friendly, and reliable, it approaches the 

ideal of the print customer being able to produce files that can be 

reproduced on the press with little or no intervention by printing 

professionals. As the printing process is simplified, the customer can take 

responsibility for more of the work. Thus, the technologies diminish the 

value that printing organizations such as GPO add to the printing process, 

particularly for simpler printing jobs. Nonetheless, professional expertise 

remains critical for many aspects of printing, and for many print jobs it is 

still not possible to bypass the printing professional altogether.

The advent of the Internet permits the instantaneous distribution of the 

electronic documents produced by the new publishing processes, breaking 

the link between printing and dissemination. With the increasing use of the 

Web, the electronic dissemination of information becomes not only 

practical, but also more economical than dissemination on paper.

As a result, many organizations are changing from a print to an electronic 

focus. In the early stages of the electronic publishing revolution, 

organizations tended to prepare a document for printing and then convert 

the print layout to electronic form—in other words, focusing on printing 

rather than dissemination. Increasingly, however, organizations are 

changing their focus to providing information—not necessarily on paper. 

Today an organization may employ computers to generate both plates used 

for printing as well as electronic files for dissemination. Tomorrow, the 

organization may create only an electronic representation of the 
Page 10 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

information, which can be disseminated through various media, such as 

Web sites.7

 A printed version would be produced only upon request.

Government Printing 

and Dissemination 

Changes Are Forcing 

GPO’s Transformation

As in private industry, printing and dissemination in the federal government 

are being heavily affected by the changing technological environment. This 

new environment presents both financial and management challenges to 

GPO. Just as the volume of material provided to private firms for printing 

has decreased over the past few years, so has the volume of material that 

federal agencies provide to GPO for printing. In addition, federal agencies 

are publishing more items directly to the Web—without creating paper 

documents at all—and are able to print and disseminate information 

without using GPO services. Similarly, individuals are downloading 

documents from government Web sites, such as GPO Access, rather than 

purchasing paper copies of government documents, thus reducing 

document sales. As a result, GPO’s financial condition has deteriorated, 

and the relationship between GPO and its federal agency customers has 

changed.

Changes in Government 

Printing and Dissemination 

Result in Reduced Revenues 

The reduction in the demand for procured printing and for printed 

government documents has resulted in reduced revenues to GPO. These 

diminished revenues, combined with steady expenses and management’s 

use of retained earnings for GPO-wide needs, have totally depleted the 

retained earnings from revolving fund activities. These retained earnings 

have gone from a surplus of $100 million in fiscal year 1998 to a deficit of 

$19 million in fiscal year 2003. Figure 1 shows the declining trend in 

retained earnings.

7

Using tools such as the Extensible Markup Language (XML), for example, an organization 

could prepare one document that would automatically be interpreted to display 

appropriately on a number of different display devices, including paper. For more 

information on XML, see U.S. General Accounting Office, Electronic Government: 

Challenges to Effective Adoption of the Extensible Markup Language, GAO-02-327

(Washington, D.C.: Apr. 5, 2002).
Page 11 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Figure 1: GPO Retained Earnings for Fiscal Years 1998–2003

Note: The accounting adjustment in 2000 reflects the reclassification of the book value of an airconditioning system. Dollar amounts have not been adjusted for inflation.

Specifically, most of the reductions to revenues for GPO’s revolving fund 

activities are from two sources: (1) losses to the sales of publications 

operations8

 and (2) adjustments to actuarial calculations of future 

liabilities for GPO’s workforce compensation.9 Additional reductions to 

retained earnings resulted from GPO’s procured printing operations and 

8

The sales of publications program absorbed additional expenses of $12 million for the 

direct write-down of the Integrated Processing System, a major system intended to 

automate certain functions for the document sales program and products. Sales of 

publications operations also include the distribution of publications on behalf of customer 

agencies. In addition, GPO management stated that the sales program had accumulated 

overhead expenses of $54.7 million over the same 5-year period, which contributed to its 

overall losses.

9

GPO used $53.3 million to comply with new intragovernmental accounting requirements 

under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (U.S. Treasury, Financial Management 

Service, Federal Intragovernmental Transactions Accounting Policies Guide, Sept. 28, 

2001).

100,045 95,000 94,885 97,113

52,092

13,327

-19,562

-20,000

0

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

1998

1999

2000

Adjustment–

2000

2001

2002

2003

Fiscal year

Retained earnings (dollars in thousands)

Source: GAO analysis of GPO financial data.
Page 12 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

regional printing.10 (See fig. 2.) Also, retained earnings were used to provide 

the Retirement Separation Incentive Program for reductions to GPO’s 

workforce.11

Figure 2: GPO Revolving Fund Activities Accumulated Losses to Retained Earnings 

for Fiscal Years 1999–2003 (Dollars in Millions)

Note: Dollar amounts have not been adjusted for inflation.

Losses to the sales program account for the largest reductions to GPO’s 

retained earnings. The sales program has had a net loss of $77 million over 

the past 5 years, $20 million in fiscal year 2003 alone. According to GPO, 

these losses are due to a downward trend in customer demand for printed 

publications that has significantly reduced document sales revenues. For 

example, according to the Superintendent of Documents, GPO sold 35,000 

subscriptions to the Federal Register 10 years ago and now sells 2,500; at 

the same time, over 4 million Federal Register documents are downloaded

10GPO closed its last remaining regional printing office in Denver, Colorado, on April 21, 

2004.

11The Retirement Separation Incentive Program had total expenses of $10.4 million to 

reduce the GPO workforce.

$77

$53

$16

$6

Sales of publications

Federal Employees' Compensation 

Act changes

Procured printing

Regional printing

Source: GAO analysis of GPO financial data.
Page 13 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

each month from GPO Access.12 The Superintendent also reported that the 

overall volume of sales has dropped from 24.3 million copies sold in fiscal 

year 1993 to 4.4 million copies sold in fiscal year 2002. As a result, revenues 

have not covered expenses, and the sales program has sustained significant 

annual operating losses. (See fig. 3.)

Figure 3: GPO Revenues and Expenses from Sales of Publications for Fiscal Years 

1999–2003 

Note: Dollar amounts have not been adjusted for inflation.

By comparison, the losses from GPO’s procured printing business are less 

significant: $15.8 million over the last 5 years. According to GPO, its federal 

agency print jobs at one time generated close to $1 billion a year. In fiscal 

year 2003, the amount was just over half that—$570 million. 

12Judith C. Russell, U.S. Superintendent of Documents, “The Federal Depository Library 

Program: Current and Future Challenges of the Electronic Transition,” paper presented at 

the annual meeting of the American Association of Law Libraries (Seattle, Wash.: July 15, 

2003). 

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

Fiscal year

Dollar amount (in millions)

Revenues

Expenses

0

20

40

60

80

Source: GAO analysis of GPO financial data.
Page 14 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Changes in Printing and 

Dissemination Affect How 

Federal Agencies Use GPO 

Services

These changes in federal printing and dissemination are also creating 

challenges for GPO’s long-standing structure for centralized printing and 

dissemination. As mentioned earlier, agencies are to notify GPO of 

published documents (if they used other printing sources), which allows 

GPO to review agency documents to determine whether the documents 

should be disseminated to the depository libraries. If they should be, GPO 

can then add a rider to the agency’s print contract to obtain the number of 

copies that it needs for dissemination.13 However, if agencies do not notify 

GPO of their intent to print, these documents become “fugitive documents” 

and may not be available to the public through the depository library 

program.

In responding to our surveys, executive branch agencies reported that they 

are producing a significant portion of their total printing volume internally, 

generally on desktop publishing and reproduction equipment instead of 

large-scale printing equipment. In addition, while most agencies (16 of 21) 

reported that they have established procedures to ensure that documents 

that should be disseminated through the libraries are forwarded to GPO, 5 

of 21 did not have such procedures, thus potentially adding to the fugitive 

document problem.

Responding agencies also reported that although currently more 

government documents are still being printed than are being published 

electronically, more and more documents are being published directly to 

the Web, and their numbers are expected to grow in the future. Most 

agencies reported that documents published directly to the Web were not 

of the type that is required to be sent to GPO for dissemination. However, a 

GPO official, in commenting on this, said that unless there is a specific 

reason why a document should not be disseminated to the public, such as if 

it is classified or of administrative interest only, GPO should have the 

opportunity to evaluate whether that document is suitable for 

dissemination through its depository library system. 

Of the five agencies that did publish eligible documents electronically, only 

one said that it had submitted these documents to GPO. As electronic 

publishing continues to grow, such conditions may contribute further to the 

fugitive document problem. 

13Receiving these copies at the rate of the original order is much less expensive than 

arranging a separate print run.
Page 15 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Change in Printing and 

Dissemination Affect 

Relationship between GPO 

and Executive Branch 

Customers

The ongoing agency shift toward electronic publishing is also creating 

challenges for GPO’s existing relationships with its executive branch 

customers. In responding to our surveys, executive branch agencies 

expressed overall satisfaction with GPO’s products and services and 

expressed a desire to continue to use these services for at least part of their 

publishing needs. However, these agencies reported a few areas in which 

GPO could improve—for example, in the presentation of new products and 

services. (We provide further results from our surveys on agency 

satisfaction in app. III.)

Further, some agencies indicated that they were less familiar with and less 

likely to use GPO’s electronic products and services. As shown in table 3, 

these agencies were hardly or not at all familiar with services such as Web 

page design and development (8 of 28), Web hosting services (8 of 29), and 

electronic publishing services (5 of 28). As a consequence, these agencies 

were also less likely to use these services. With the expected growth in 

electronic publishing and other services, making customer agencies fully 

aware of GPO’s capabilities in these areas is important. Table 3 provides 

agency responses on their familiarity with various GPO products and 

services. 

Table 3: Executive Agency Familiarity with GPO Services

GPO product/service

Agency familiarity with GPO products/services

Extremely Very Moderately Somewhat

Hardly or 

not at all Totala

Archiving/storage 2 5 7 5 9 28

Binding 6 12 4 4 3 29

CD-ROM development and production 4 6 12 3 4 29

Converting products to electronic format 4 5 13 3 4 29

Custom finishing 5 8 8 4 4 29

Duplication/print on demand 9 8 7 2 2 28

Electronic publishing 2 9 8 4 5 28

Federal Depository Library Program 12 10 4 1 2 29

Financial management services 4 9 7 6 3 29

GPO sales program 8 8 8 2 3 29

Institute for Federal Printing and Electronic Publishing 12 7 4 4 2 29

Large format printing 4 7 7 4 6 28

Production Inventory Control System 7 6 5 5 6 29
Page 16 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Source: GAO analysis of agency-reported data.

a

Not all agencies answered every question. 

b

Preflighting is checking printed or electronic copy before printed copies are made. 

c

Press sheet inspection is a review of printed sheets before printed copies are made.

A few of the responding agencies reported less than satisfied ratings for 

some GPO products and services. Among these services were financial 

management services (7 of 23) and Web page design/development (3 of 10). 

Agencies also reported not using some GPO products and services, 

including Web hosting and Web page design/development services (18 of 

28), converting products to electronic format (11 of 28), and electronic 

publishing services (9 of 28). Table 4 shows the results of our survey on 

agency satisfaction with GPO services, which includes agencies’ reports of 

products and services that they do not use.

Table 4: Executive Agency Level of Satisfaction with GPO Services

Preflighting b 7 9 7 3 3 29

Press sheet inspection c 14 10 2 2 1 29

Printing (in-house) 17 6 3 2 1 29

Product dissemination 8 7 7 2 5 29

Reimbursable storage/distribution 5 2 10 6 6 29

Typography/design 12 6 4 4 3 29

Web hosting 1 4 6 10 8 29

Web page design/development 1 5 5 9 8 28

(Continued From Previous Page)

GPO product/service

Agency familiarity with GPO products/services

Extremely Very Moderately Somewhat

Hardly or 

not at all Totala

GPO product/service

Agency satisfaction with GPO products/services

Excellent

Above 

average Average

Below 

average Poor

Don’t 

use Totala

Archiving/storage 1 4 6 0 2 15 28

Binding 4 9 4 0 2 9 28

CD-ROM development and production 3 4 9 1 2 9 28

Converting products to electronic format 3 6 7 0 1 11 28

Custom finishing 4 6 4 0 2 12 28

Duplication/print on demand 5 5 6 1 2 9 28

Electronic publishing 4 7 7 0 1 9 28
Page 17 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Source: GAO analysis of agency-reported data.

a

Not all agencies answered every question.

GPO Is Taking Action to 

Address Challenges

GPO officials agreed with our assessment of the impact of technological 

change and said they are taking action to make GPO a more customerfocused organization. According to these officials, GPO is

• taking a new direction with its Office of Sales and Marketing, including 

hiring an outside expert and establishing nine national account 

managers, who spend most of their time in the field building 

relationships with key customers, analyzing their business processes, 

identifying current and future needs, and offering solutions;

• working with its largest agency customer, the Department of Defense, to 

determine how to work more closely with large in-house printing 

operations;

• evaluating recommendations received from the Depository Library 

Council; and

Federal Depository Library Program 9 6 4 3 2 3 27

Financial management services 2 4 10 3 4 5 28

GPO sales program 5 4 10 2 1 5 27

Institute for Federal Printing and Electronic Publishing 11 7 5 0 1 4 28

Large format printing 4 3 9 0 1 10 27

Production Inventory Control System 2 4 11 1 1 9 28

Preflighting 2 8 6 0 2 10 28

Press sheet inspection 8 9 5 0 2 4 28

Printing (in-house) 7 7 5 2 2 5 28

Product dissemination 4 7 6 1 2 7 27

Reimbursable storage/distribution 1 2 4 0 2 19 28

Typography/design 3 9 4 1 2 9 28

Web hosting 1 2 5 1 1 18 28

Web page design/development 1 2 4 1 2 18 28

(Continued From Previous Page)

GPO product/service

Agency satisfaction with GPO products/services

Excellent

Above 

average Average

Below 

average Poor

Don’t 

use Totala
Page 18 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

• continuing to implement a Demonstration Print Procurement Project, 

jointly announced with the Office of Management and Budget on June 6, 

2003. 

The Demonstration Print Procurement Project is to provide a Web-based 

system that will be a one-stop, integrated print ordering and invoicing 

system. The system is to allow agencies to order their own printing at 

reduced rates, with the option of buying additional printing procurement 

services from GPO. According to GPO, this project is also designed to 

address many of the issues identified through our executive branch 

surveys, particularly the depository library fugitive document problem.

Recommended Next Steps Although executive branch agencies generally expressed satisfaction with 

GPO products and services, their survey responses indicate some areas for 

improvement. Accordingly, we recommend that the Public Printer 

• work with executive branch agencies to examine the nature of their inhouse printing and determine whether GPO could provide these 

services more economically;

• address the few areas in which executive branch agencies rated GPO’s 

products, services, and performance as below average;

• reexamine GPO’s marketing of electronic services to ensure that 

agencies are aware of them; and

• use the results of our surveys to work with agencies to establish 

processes that will ensure that eligible documents (whether printed or 

electronic) are forwarded to GPO for dissemination to the public, as 

required by law.

Expert Panel Suggests 

Strategic Options for GPO’s 

Future Role

The Public Printer and his leadership team recognize the challenges that 

they face in the very competitive printing and dissemination marketplace 

and have embarked upon an ambitious effort to transform the agency. First 

and foremost, the Public Printer agrees with the need to reexamine the 

mission of the agency within the context of technological change that 

underlies GPO’s current situation. To assist in that process, our expert 

panel developed a series of options for GPO to consider in its planning. 

Briefly, the panel suggested that GPO 
Page 19 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

• develop a business plan to focus its mission on information 

dissemination as its primary goal, rather than printing;

• demonstrate to its customers—including agencies and the public—the 

value it can provide;

• improve and extend partnerships with agencies to help establish itself 

as an information disseminator; and

• ensure that its internal operations—including technology, how it 

conducts business with its customers, management information 

systems, and training—are adequate for efficient and effective 

management of core business functions and for service to its customers.

We shared the results of the panel with GPO leadership, who commented 

that the panel’s suggestions dovetail well with their own assessments. 

These leaders stated that they are using the results of the panel as a key 

part of the agency’s ongoing strategic planning process. The panel 

members are listed in appendix IV.

Create a New Vision 

Focusing on Dissemination

In view of the changing federal government printing and dissemination 

environment, the panel suggested that GPO first needs to create a new 

vision of itself as a disseminator of information, and not only a printer of 

documents. As one panel member put it, GPO should end up resembling a 

bank of information rather than a mint that stamps paper. 

As a first step in this new vision, according to the panel, GPO needs to 

develop a business plan that emphasizes direct electronic dissemination 

methods over distribution of paper documents. The panel identified several 

elements that could be included in such a business plan: 

Improving GPO Access. GPO Access should be upgraded, and particular 

emphasis should be placed on improving the search capabilities. 

Investigating methods to disseminate information directly. For 

example, GPO could develop additional services to “push” data and 

documents into the hands of those who need or want them. To become 

more active in disseminating data, GPO could provide information to 

public interest or advocacy groups that are interested in tracking 

government information on certain subjects. These groups require 

something like a news clipping service, and the panel suggested that this is 
Page 20 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

one way in which GPO could provide “value-added” service for which it 

could collect fees.14

Modernizing production processes. GPO should be moving toward 

production processes that will allow it to prepare a document once for 

distribution through various media (print or electronic). In the past, most 

organizations have focused on printing paper documents that are then 

turned into electronic ones. According to the panel members, the strategy 

for the future is to publish electronically and print only when necessary.

Promote the federal use of metadata. GPO should support the use of 

metadata—descriptive information about the data provided that is carried 

along with the data—across the federal government as a requirement for 

electronic publishing. 

Providing increased support to the depository libraries. According to 

the panel, the depository libraries will continue to play an important role in 

providing access to electronically disseminated government information—

through GPO Access and other tools—to that portion of the public that 

does not have access to the Internet. To support this role, GPO will have to 

ensure that the depository libraries receive training in electronic search 

tools, especially in GPO Access.

GPO officials stated that its Office of Innovation and New Technologies, 

established in early 2003, is leading an effort to transform GPO into an 

agency “at the cutting edge of multichannel information dissemination.”15 A 

major goal in this effort is to disseminate information while still addressing 

the need “to electronically preserve, authenticate, and version the 

documents of our democracy.” Also, GPO has established an Office of New 

Business Development that is to develop new products and service ideas 

that will result in increased revenues. GPO officials stated that they are 

using the results of the panel discussion to categorize and prioritize their 

initial compilation of ideas for new products and services and, in this 

14GPO is authorized to collect fees to reimburse its revolving fund for services and supplies 

provided, including charges for overhead. 44 U.S.C. §309(b)(1).

15The mission of this office is to find new technologies that can help GPO with the 

challenges of acquiring, authenticating, versioning, disseminating, and preserving digital 

information. According to GPO, each of these functions related to digital asset management 

is crucial to its future.
Page 21 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

context, plan to assess how these ideas would improve operations and 

revenue.

Demonstrate Value to 

Customers and the Public

The panel also agreed that, while GPO appears to provide value to agencies 

because of its expertise in printing and dissemination, it is not clear that 

agencies and the general public realize this. Therefore, GPO should focus 

on demonstrating its value to federal agencies and to the public. According 

to the panel, areas that GPO could emphasize include the following:

Providing competitively priced printing that meets customer needs.

GPO should collect the data to show that it can, in fact, provide the “best 

value” for the government print dollar. GPO should demonstrate its 

capabilities by assisting agencies to select optimal alternatives for 

obtaining their printing. 

Providing expert assistance in electronic dissemination. Given GPO’s 

major role in providing information dissemination, one panel member 

suggested that GPO provide its expert advice on electronic Web site 

dissemination to agencies. Once again, GPO could develop information that 

demonstrates how it can add value in this area.

Disseminating government information to the public. GPO should 

focus on demonstrating the usefulness of agencies’ sharing information 

with GPO for public dissemination. In addition, the depository libraries and 

GPO Access should be made better known to the public. GPO could 

demonstrate its value to the public as a trusted source of authentic 

government information. 

GPO agreed that demonstrating its value is an important part of its new 

customer service direction. GPO’s Office of Sales and Marketing is also 

working to augment customer service, including hiring an outside expert 

and establishing nine national account managers, as mentioned earlier. 

Establish Partnerships with 

Collaborating and Customer 

Agencies

According to the panel, GPO should establish partnerships with other 

agencies and enhance the partnerships it already has. These partnerships 

can be used to assist GPO in establishing itself as a disseminator and 

depository of information and to expand agencies’ use of GPO in this role. 

Specifically, the panel suggested that GPO establish partnerships with the 

other information dissemination and preservation agencies (such as the 

National Library of Medicine, the Office of Scientific and Technical 
Page 22 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Information, the Library of Congress, and the National Archives and 

Records Administration) with which it has related responsibilities. 

Through ongoing dialogue with these agencies, GPO will be able to 

(1) coordinate standards and best practices for digitizing documents and 

(2) work with agencies to archive documents in order to keep them 

permanently available to the public. GPO could be successfully marketed 

as the source of government information for public use.

In addition, the panel suggested that GPO improve and expand its 

partnerships with other agencies. Most agencies consider GPO a resource 

for printing documents; however, it now has the capability to assist in the 

collection and dissemination of electronic information. 

GPO agreed that partnerships with other agencies, particularly the 

information dissemination agencies, would be a key item in its 

transformation. GPO has made efforts to join various working groups 

within the government working on information dissemination issues. Most 

recently, the Public Printer has been added to the oversight committee of 

the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program 

(NDIIPP), a national cooperative effort to archive and preserve digital 

information, led by the Library of Congress.

Improve Internal Operations The panel suggested that GPO would need to improve its internal 

operations to be successful in the very competitive printing and 

dissemination marketplace. Panel members suggested that GPO consider 

the following strategies.

Emphasize the use of technology to address future needs. The panel 

members suggested that GPO hire a chief technical officer (in addition to 

its chief information officer), who would focus on bringing in new printing 

and dissemination technologies while maintaining older technologies. 

Improve how it conducts business with its customers. An electronic 

means for submitting printing requests would streamline the printing 

process for GPO customers. One panel member noted that when his 

organization started an electronic submission system for manuscripts, the 

number of requests it received increased dramatically because such 

systems made it easier for the user. (GPO’s demonstration project, 

currently being piloted at the Department of Labor, includes use of a Webbased tool for submitting printing requests.)
Page 23 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Improving management information systems. GPO should overhaul its 

outdated management information systems and acquire new ones that can 

provide management with the information it needs to effectively monitor 

operations and to make good business decisions.

Enhance employee training. GPO’s transformation should include 

significant improvements to employee training. GPO customer service 

employees should have the knowledge they need to effectively assist 

customers not only in printing publications and creating electronic 

documents, but also in advising customers on the best form of 

dissemination (paper or electronic) for their jobs. 

GPO agreed that its internal operations need improvement. Among its 

actions to address the adequacy of its internal functions, GPO has hired a 

chief technical officer. The chief technical officer serves as a codirector of 

the Innovation and New Technology Office and provides principal guidance 

in the creation and development of technology designed to accelerate the 

transformation of GPO into a 21st century information organization using 

state of the art solutions to provide the highest quality government 

information services to the nation.

GPO Has Made the 

Case for Change, but 

Actions to Advance 

Transformation 

Needed

Large-scale change management initiatives, such as organizational 

transformations, are not simple endeavors and require the concentrated 

efforts of both leadership and employees to realize intended synergies and 

to accomplish new organizational goals. We have identified a number of 

key practices and related implementation steps that have consistently been 

found at the center of successful transformations.16 Collectively, these key 

practices and implementation steps can help agencies transform their 

cultures so that they have the capacity to fulfill their promises, meet 

current and emerging needs, maximize their performance, and ensure 

accountability. GPO has applied some key practices as part of its 

transformation effort, such as involving top leadership and strategically 

communicating with employees and other stakeholders. However, it has 

not fully applied key practices that emphasize planning and goal setting. 

For example, GPO has not developed a plan for its transformation that 

would include goals and strategies to achieve its goals. Such a plan is 

16U.S. General Accounting Office, Results-Oriented Cultures: Implementation Steps to 

Assist Mergers and Organizational Transformations, GAO-03-669 (Washington, D.C.: 

July 2, 2003).
Page 24 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

important to pinpoint performance shortfalls and gaps and suggest 

midcourse corrections.

GPO’s Leadership Has 

Clearly Articulated the Need 

to Transform and Taken 

Steps to Ensure the 

Continued Delivery of 

Services

Because transformation of an organization entails fundamental change, 

strong and inspirational leadership is indispensable. Our work has found 

that leadership articulating a succinct and compelling reason for change 

helps employees, customers, and stakeholders understand the expected 

outcomes of the transformation and engenders not only their cooperation, 

but also their ownership of these outcomes. In addition, to ensure that the 

productivity and effectiveness of the organization do not decline, 

leadership must also balance the continued delivery of services with 

transformation activities. 

On several occasions and to different audiences, the Public Printer has 

reiterated the need for GPO to move from the 19th century to the 21st 

century. The Public Printer bases his case for change on three interrelated 

points that are consistent with our findings discussed above:

• GPO’s printing business and customer base has decreased significantly 

in recent years due to the government’s and public’s increased use of 

and reliance on electronic documents, necessitating GPO to establish 

itself as the leading organization within the federal government for 

dealing with the collection, authentication, and preservation of 

government documents—rather than a traditional printing operation. 

• GPO has failed to update its technological abilities to keep pace with 

changes in the information dissemination environment, and as a result 

must update its technology to address the needs of today’s customers 

and information users and stay alert to future trends and changing 

needs.

• GPO’s retained earnings, which were normally available to fund 

technological investment, are virtually depleted, requiring GPO to 

change the way in which it does business to ensure that it can reverse 

the trend of financial losses.

Key transformation practice Implementation steps

Ensure top leadership drives the 

transformation.

• Define and articulate a succinct and compelling 

reason for change.

• Balance continued delivery of services with 

transformation activities.
Page 25 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

GPO’s precarious financial condition makes it essential that its leaders 

effectively balance transformation efforts with the continued delivery of 

services. The Public Printer created and filled eight top leadership 

positions. The creation of these positions recognized that the demands of 

transforming while managing an ongoing operation can strain leadership, 

as well as the importance of organizational structure as a key factor 

affecting an agency’s management control environment. These positions, 

which had no counterpart in GPO’s former organization, can help ensure 

that GPO balances its transformation efforts with its day-to-day operations. 

For example, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) focuses primarily on dayto-day activities, the Chief of Staff focuses on strategic planning, and the 

Chief Human Capital Officer (CHCO), CIO, and CFO address both types of 

activities within their respective functional areas.17 (See fig. 4.)

17On June 3, 2004, GPO’s Chief of Staff was appointed to serve as Acting CHCO and the 

Public Printer’s Special Assistant following the departure of the CHCO. The Acting CHCO 

stated that GPO would continue implementing the many transformation efforts initiated by 

the Human Capital Office.
Page 26 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Figure 4: GPO’s Organization as of June 2004

GPO Has Set Interim Goals 

for Its Operating Units 

While It Works on a 

Strategic Plan

The mission and strategic goals of a transformed organization must 

become the focus of the transformation, define the culture, and serve as the 

vehicle for employees to unite and rally around. In successful 

transformation efforts, developing, communicating, and constantly 

reinforcing the mission and strategic goals give employees, customers, and 

stakeholders a sense of what the organization intends to accomplish, as 

well as helping employees determine how their positions fit in with the new 

organization and what they need to do differently to help the new 

Public Printer

Chief Executive Officer

Chief of Staff

Deputy Chief of Staff

Congressional Relations

Director

Innovation

and New Technologies

Codirectors

Public Relations

Director

Deputy Public Printer

Chief Operating Officer

New Business 

Development

Codirectors

Office of Equal

Employment Opportunity

Director

Office of the

Inspector General

Inspector General

Office of 

Legal Counsel

General Counsel

Customer Services

Managing Director

Plant Operations

Managing Director

Information Dissemination

Superintendent of Documents

Finance and

Administration

Chief Financial Officer

Human Capital

Chief Human Capital Officer

Information Technology

and Systems

Chief Information Officer

Source: GAO analysis.

New positions
Page 27 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

organization achieve success. Adopting leading practices for resultsoriented strategic planning and reporting, including those mandated for 

executive agencies in the Government Performance and Results Act 

(GPRA), can help focus transformation efforts. While GPO is not required 

to follow GPRA, the act can provide a relevant framework for GPO to 

follow in developing its strategic plan.18 GPRA requires that strategic plans 

include several elements, including a mission statement, goals and 

objectives, and approaches or strategies to achieve goals and objectives. 

The framework can help an agency meet management control standards by 

enabling top management review of actual performance against planned 

performance.19

GPO is establishing a mission and strategic goals. Its overall approach is to 

consider the information gathered in the past year on GPO’s current 

environment—including the results of our work—and develop its strategic 

plan by the summer of 2004. Specific responsibilities for drafting a strategic 

plan have been placed with the Chief of Staff, who, beginning in April 2004, 

held biweekly meetings with the Public Printer to discuss the direction for 

the strategic plan.20 These meetings were meant to provide the Chief of 

Staff with updates on the Public Printer’s vision, which, according to a GPO 

official, is being developed as he meets with stakeholders and industry 

leaders.

Over the past year, the Public Printer has spoken with employees, 

stakeholders, and the Congress to help focus and refine a vision for GPO’s 

future. On April 28, 2004, the Public Printer made his most clear and direct 

statement of his vision for GPO thus far, stating that GPO has “begun to 

18U.S. General Accounting Office, Results-Oriented Government: GPRA Has Established a 

Solid Foundation for Achieving Greater Results, GAO-04-38 (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 10, 

2004).

Key transformation practice Implementation step

Establish a coherent mission and 

integrated strategic goals to guide 

the transformation.

Adopt leading practices for results-oriented strategic 

planning and reporting.

19U.S. General Accounting Office, Standards for Internal Control in the Federal 

Government, GAO/AIMD-00-21.3.1 (Washington, D.C.: November 1999).

20GPO’s Chief of Staff will continue to have responsibility for GPO’s strategic planning in his 

new position as Special Assistant to the Public Printer and Acting CHCO.
Page 28 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

develop a new vision for the GPO: an agency whose primary mission will be 

to capture digitally, organize, maintain, authenticate, distribute, and 

provide permanent public access to the information products and services 

of the federal government.” GPO’s strategic plan has the potential to unite 

employees around the new mission and determine what they need to do to 

help GPO transform and achieve success in the new environment.

Although GPO has not fully developed its mission and strategic goals, 

GPO’s leadership has started to change GPO’s culture by setting interim 

goals for major operating units. Managers told us that in the past, GPO’s 

culture was to not set goals in order to avoid being held accountable for 

results. More specifically, GPO did not set or track any organizational goals 

and, therefore, did not develop the capacity to measure performance. The 

COO began to change GPO’s culture by leading an initiative in October 2003 

to develop goals for its operating units and told us that it was important to 

begin to focus managers’ attention on priority issues and hold them 

accountable for progress. He said he viewed the interim goals as a 

necessary step to prepare GPO managers to operate in a results-oriented 

environment after GPO’s strategic plan is completed.

The COO met with the heads of each business unit to develop goals that 

they thought would be consistent with GPO’s yet-to-be-developed strategic 

mission based on discussions with the Public Printer. Once the goals were 

developed, the COO and business unit managers identified areas where 

some interdependence with other managers’ goals might exist. Each 

manager is responsible for achieving between 6 and 11 goals that are 

specific to his or her business unit, and 6 additional goals that are common 

across GPO. The common goals are as follows: 

• offer training opportunities to all employees in necessary job skills;

• establish baseline information on customer satisfaction;

• resolve all reportable conditions from financial audits;

• establish a line of communication through regular meetings to 

disseminate information;

• complete second-level reorganizations; and 

• establish adequate off-site backup to enable continuity of essential 

operations.
Page 29 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

GPO’s efforts to set goals are a significant step toward strengthening 

communication and accountability; however, many of the goals do not 

emphasize outcomes. For example, one of the goals for both the Customer 

Services and Information Dissemination divisions is to implement the 

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) compact demonstration 

program.21 While this demonstrates that GPO has incorporated crosscutting goals between its operating units, this goal is a statement of a task 

to be accomplished rather than an outcome to be achieved.

While goals are important for establishing accountability, so too are 

measures, because they allow leaders to perform their management control 

responsibilities for monitoring performance and ensuring resolution of 

identified performance gaps. GPO’s COO has stated that he would like to 

strengthen performance measurement as GPO sets its goals for fiscal year 

2005. To this end, GPO has the opportunity to learn from the practices of 

leading organizations that implemented results-oriented management. 

Among other things, such leading organizations generally developed 

measures that were tied to program goals, demonstrated the degree to 

which the desired results were achieved, and were limited to the vital few 

that were considered essential to producing data for decision making.22

Recommended Next Steps Consistent with the efforts under way, the Public Printer should ensure that 

GPO’s strategic planning process includes development of

• a comprehensive agency mission statement to define the basic purpose 

of GPO;

• agencywide long-term goals and objectives to explain what results are 

expected from the agency’s main functions and when to expect those 

results;

• approaches or strategies to achieve goals and objectives to align GPO’s 

activities, core processes, and resources to support achievement of 

GPO’s strategic goals and mission;

21GPO and OMB entered a compact on June 6, 2003, in which GPO would create a 

demonstration project designed to provide federal agencies flexibility in choosing their own 

printing services. 

22U.S. General Accounting Office, Executive Guide: Effectively Implementing the 

Government Performance and Results Act, GGD-96-118 (Washington, D.C.: June 1996). 
Page 30 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

• a description of the relationship between the long-term and annual goals 

to show expected progress;

• an identification of key external factors to help determine what actions 

will be needed to meet the goals; and

• a description of program evaluations used to establish or revise 

strategic goals, and a schedule for future program evaluations.

The Public Printer should reinforce a focus on results by continuing efforts 

to set goals, measure performance, and hold managers accountable by 

adopting leading practices of organizations that have been successful in 

measuring their performance. First, the measures that GPO develops 

should be

• tied to program goals and demonstrate the degree to which the desired 

results were achieved,

• limited to the vital few that are considered essential to producing data 

for decision making,

• responsive to multiple priorities, and 

• responsibility-linked to establish accountability for results.

Second, GPO leadership needs to recognize the cost and effort involved in 

gathering and analyzing performance data and make sure that the data it 

collects are sufficiently complete, accurate, and consistent to be useful in 

decision making.

GPO Can Strengthen Its 

Transformation by Focusing 

on a Key Set of Principles 

and Priorities

Principles are the core values of the new organization; like the mission and 

strategic goals, they can serve as an anchor that remains valid and enduring 

while organizations, personnel, programs, and processes may change. Core 

values define the attributes that are intrinsically important to what the new 

organization does and how it will do it. They represent the institutional 
Page 31 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

beliefs and boundaries that are essential to building a new culture for the 

organization.

GPO leadership has not adopted a set of agencywide core values to help 

unify GPO to achieve its transformation, but has created a task team under 

the direction of the Deputy Chief of Staff to develop them. Although the 

core values have yet to be developed, they are referenced in draft 

performance agreements for its senior managers. 

The experience of a GPO unit demonstrates the benefits of having core 

values. According to the Director of the Pueblo Document Distribution 

Center, core values were developed in 1998 that helped change the center’s 

culture and focus employees on improving the center’s performance. The 

employees at Pueblo had a series of meetings to develop and agree on the 

core values, thereby taking ownership of them and reinforcing employees’ 

understanding that they were responsible for the success of the Pueblo 

facility. Figure 5 shows a banner detailing these core values that hangs 

prominently in the facility. 

Key transformation practice Implementation step

Focus on a key set of principles 

and priorities at the outset of the 

transformation.

Embed core values in every aspect of the 

organization to reinforce the new culture.
Page 32 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Figure 5: Banner Displayed at GPO’s Pueblo Document Distribution Center

Employees said that the banner is a constant reminder that their individual 

and organizational success is dependent on how well they employ the core 

values as they serve their customers. The Pueblo Document Distribution 

Center Director said that establishing core values has helped employees 

take ownership for improving customer service, as measured by the 

center’s per order error rate. He said that the employees understand the 

importance of these core values because most of their work is done on a 

reimbursable basis for other federal agency customers, the center’s 

primary source of funding. Efforts to improve customer service are 

consistent with the recommendation made by the panel of printing and 

information dissemination experts we convened.

Recommended Next Steps The Public Printer should

• articulate to all employees how the core values can guide GPO’s 

transformation and serve to anchor GPO’s transformation efforts and

Source: GAO.
Page 33 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

• ensure core values developed by units within GPO are consistent with 

GPO’s agencywide core values.

GPO Does Not Have a 

Transformation Plan, but 

Has Taken Steps to 

Demonstrate Progress 

Because a transformation is a substantial commitment that could take 

years to complete, it must be carefully and closely managed. As a result, it 

is essential to establish and track implementation goals and establish a 

timeline to pinpoint performance shortfalls and gaps and suggest 

midcourse corrections. Further, research suggests that failure to 

adequately address—and often even consider—a wide variety of people 

and cultural issues is at the heart of unsuccessful transformations. Thus, 

people and cultural issues must be monitored from day one of a 

transformation.

Make public implementation goals and timeline. GPO has not 

established a transformation plan with specific time frames and goals for 

which leadership would be held accountable. Although GPO leadership has 

stated that a critical phase of its transformation is to develop a strategic 

plan by the summer of 2004, other more specific goals and timelines for the 

transformation, which could be linked to those being included in the 

strategic plan, are under development. 

GPO has the opportunity to ensure that its transformation remains on track 

and is ultimately successful by applying project management principles. 

Project management is a control mechanism that provides some assurance 

that desired outcomes can be achieved. It involves establishing key goals, 

tasks, time frames, and responsibilities that guide project accomplishment 

and ensure accountability. GPO leaders have acknowledged general 

weaknesses in GPO’s project management capabilities and have identified 

this as a skills gap that is being addressed through training initiatives. By 

enhancing project management skills at various levels of the organization 

and applying project management principles to key efforts like the 

Key transformation practice Implementation steps

Set implementation goals and a 

timeline to build momentum and 

show progress from day one.

• Make public implementation goals and timeline.

• Seek and monitor employee attitudes and take 

appropriate follow-up actions.

• Identify cultural features of transforming 

organizations.

• Attract and retain key talent.

• Establish an organizationwide knowledge and skills 

inventory.
Page 34 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

transformation, GPO can have greater assurance that these efforts will 

produce desired outcomes.

Seek and monitor employee attitudes and take appropriate followup actions. Because people are the drivers of any merger or 

transformation, monitoring their attitudes is vital. Top leadership should 

also take appropriate follow-up actions to avoid creating negative attitudes 

that may translate into actions that could have a detrimental effect on the 

transformation. 

In February 2003, GPO leadership sought employee attitudes by 

implementing an employee climate survey, an important first step to 

establish a baseline on employee attitudes and concerns. After the survey 

was completed, GPO leadership adopted recommendations to address 

employee concerns. GPO will have the opportunity to take additional 

follow-up actions based on a second employee survey it plans to administer 

in the coming months. This survey has the potential to provide GPO 

leadership with updated information on GPO employee attitudes and views 

on GPO’s transformation. 

Identify cultural features of transforming organizations. Because a 

change of culture is at the heart of a successful transformation, it is 

important for leadership to gain a better understanding of the 

organization’s beliefs and values prior to, or early in, the transformation 

process. By listening to GPO employees and customers, GPO management 

determined that its culture was not sufficiently customer focused in dealing 

with agencies’ printing needs. Instead, GPO relied on the requirement in 

Title 44 that federal agencies use GPO for their printing needs and made 

little effort to develop customer relationships and anticipate the needs of 

its customers. As mentioned earlier, to foster a more customer-oriented 

culture, GPO has created new positions, national account managers, 

responsible for developing relationships with customer agencies. The 

national account managers’ role is to develop relationships with agency 

customers and provide them with information about the products and 

services that GPO can offer to meet their information dissemination needs.

Similarly, GPO’s former CHCO spoke with GPO employees about their 

views of the Human Capital Office and identified features of the office’s 

culture that he is trying to change. The recent restructing of the Human 

Capital Office is aimed at creating a culture that is more customer focused, 

breaking down organizational barriers, and enhancing internal and external 

communication. For example, the Human Capital Office has been 
Page 35 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

reorganized into teams dedicated to support GPO’s operating units. These 

teams will be able to address the full range of human resources activities, 

from hiring to retirement, as well as worker safety issues. According to 

GPO, physically locating the human capital team members with the 

business unit staff ensures that the operating units’ human resources needs 

are more easily met, improves communication between the units and the 

Human Capital Office, and allows for faster decision making.

Attract and retain key talent. Success is more likely when the best 

people are selected for each position based on the competencies needed 

for the new organization. To help ensure that GPO retained key talent 

needed for GPO’s transformation, the Public Printer appointed experienced 

GPO employees to fill the top management positions of Superintendent of 

Documents, Managing Director of Customer Services, and Managing 

Director of Plant Operations. (One of the three employees has over 40 

years of experience at GPO.) According to the Public Printer, each of these 

individuals is committed to helping GPO transform and successfully meet 

the needs and demands of GPO's customers in the 21st century. In addition, 

these appointments ensured that a vast amount of institutional knowledge 

remained at GPO during the transformation and were meant to give other 

current GPO employees a clear message that, while GPO is transforming 

and changing the way it does business, there is a place for current GPO 

employees at all levels of the new organization.

To ensure that GPO attracts the people it needs to successfully transform 

and to obtain the next generation of technical skills needed to prepare GPO 

for the challenges of the 21st century, the Public Printer has increased the 

recruitment of outstanding college scholars. GPO has implemented a 

recruiting initiative at universities and colleges that emphasize fields of 

study that would benefit GPO in meeting its current and emerging needs. 

For example, the initiative will target graduates in printing and graphic 

communication; electrical, mechanical, and chemical engineering; and 

business administration. 

In response to a request from the General Counsel of GPO, we recently 

provided an advance decision that GPO may use appropriated funds to 

provide recruitment and relocation payments and retention allowances to 

certain GPO employees, but suggested that it consult with the Joint 

Committee on Printing before doing so.23 GPO is exploring these and other 

23B-301837 (Apr. 28, 2004).
Page 36 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

strategies to enhance its ability to recruit and retain top talent with needed 

skills and knowledge. We have reported that agencies have successfully 

used human capital flexibilities, such as recruitment and retention 

allowances, as important human capital strategies to assist in reaching 

program goals.24

Establish an organizationwide knowledge and skills inventory. A 

knowledge and skills inventory can help a transforming organization 

identify the skills and competencies of the existing workforce that can help 

the organization adapt to its new mission. In addition, a transforming 

organization needs to define the critical skills and competencies that it will 

require in the future to meet its strategic program goals and identify how it 

will obtain these requirements, including those that it will need to acquire, 

develop, and retain (including full- and part-time federal staff and 

contractors) to meet future needs.25

GPO’s Human Capital Office is planning to complete a knowledge and skills 

inventory to identify the skills and competencies of the existing workforce. 

In a memorandum to all GPO employees, the former CHCO explained that 

the Workforce Development Department will undertake a comprehensive 

skills assessment involving all employees to strategically determine how 

GPO will need to retrain the workforce as the transformation proceeds. 

The skills assessment will include a number of measurement tools and 

methods, including skills tests, electronic and paper-based surveys, 

interviews, focus groups, and observations of work. The knowledge and 

skills inventory could help GPO as it reorganizes and shifts focus to new 

missions and competencies.

Knowledge and skills inventories have been used by agencies to identify 

related training needs. We have reported that agencies have used a variety 

of approaches in assessing skills and competencies to identify training 

needs. For example, agencies used workforce planning models; assessed 

the workforce in view of organizational, occupational, and unit-based

24U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: Effective Use of Flexibilities Can Assist 

Agencies in Managing Their Workforces, GAO-03-2 (Washington, D.C.: Dec. 6, 2002).

25U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: Key Principles for Effective Strategic 

Workforce Planning, GAO-04-39 (Washington, D.C.: Dec. 11, 2003).
Page 37 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

competency standards; and evaluated job performance appraisals and 

information from individual development plans.26

While GPO completes the skills assessment of its current employees, it 

plans to also complete a systematic identification of new skills and 

competencies that it will need in the future. When GPO leadership 

completes both of these efforts, it will be able to pinpoint skills gaps within 

its workforce and develop strategies to ensure that GPO retains, develops, 

and acquires employees with these skills. These efforts can serve to help 

employees understand how they can enhance their skills to contribute to 

GPO’s future and are consistent with the recommendation to strengthen 

training made by the panel of printing and information dissemination 

experts that we convened.

The skills inventory is an important step to ensure that GPO employs 

people with the skills necessary for its future mission. However, until GPO 

leadership finalizes the mission and goals of the transformed GPO, it 

cannot determine fully the skills needed to achieve current and future 

programmatic results or develop strategies focused on those skills.

Recommended Next Steps The Public Printer should develop a documented transformation plan that

• outlines his goals for the transformation and when he expects to meet 

these goals and 

• identifies critical phases and essential activities that need to be 

completed. 

The CHCO should

• determine, based on the results of the upcoming employee survey, 

whether any changes are needed to the transformation strategies and

• ensure that the development of human capital strategies focuses on the 

skills gaps identified by GPO leadership.

26U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: Selected Agencies’ Experiences and 

Lessons Learned in Designing Training and Development Programs, GAO-04-291

(Washington, D.C.: Jan. 30, 2004).
Page 38 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

GPO’s Management Team Is 

in Place, but Attention to 

Daily Transformational 

Activities Could Be 

Strengthened

Dedicating a strong and stable implementation team that will be 

responsible for the transformation's day-to-day management is important 

to ensuring that it receives the focused, full-time attention needed to be 

sustained and successful. Specifically, the implementation team is 

important to ensuring that various change initiatives are sequenced and 

implemented in a coherent and integrated way. Top leadership must vest 

the team with the necessary authority and resources to set priorities, make 

timely decisions, and move quickly to implement top leadership’s decisions 

about the transformation.

The Public Printer has put in place a senior management team, referred to 

as the management council, which can help bring GPO into the future. This 

council is composed of the COO, CFO, CHCO, CIO, Superintendent of 

Documents, Managing Director of Plant Operations, Managing Director of 

Customer Services, the Chief of Staff, the Deputy Chief of Staff, General 

Counsel, and the Inspector General. According to GPO officials, the 

management council does not have regularly scheduled meetings and only 

meets when convened by the Public Printer. About 80 percent of the 

management council’s time is devoted to long-term, transformational 

activities, while 20 percent of the time is devoted to addressing day-to-day 

operational issues. 

A second management team, referred to as the operations council, is 

composed of the CFO, CHCO, CIO, Superintendent of Documents, 

Managing Director of Plant Operations, and Managing Director of 

Customer Services; this council meets weekly with the COO. According to 

GPO officials, this council spends about 80 percent of its time dealing with 

day-to-day operations and 20 percent with transformation issues. Although 

the operations council occasionally discusses transformation-related 

issues, its meetings are not structured around specific transformation tasks 

or decisions required to make progress on the transformation. Instead, the 

meetings give each member of the council an opportunity to provide an 

update on issues affecting his or her unit’s operations, improve 

communication among GPO’s top managers, and ensure that crosscutting 

issues in day-to-day operations receive management attention. 

Key transformation practice Implementation steps

Dedicate an implementation team 

to manage the transformation 

process.

• Establish networks to support implementation team.

• Select high-performing team members.
Page 39 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

GPO leadership recognizes the importance of establishing networks to 

support its transformation efforts, and it is creating a network of task 

forces to lead the development of various transformational strategies. For 

example, GPO created a task force to focus on “revenue enhancements and 

new investments.” This task force will be chaired by the CFO, and will 

include members of other GPO business units, such as New Business 

Development and Information Technology and Systems. The Public Printer 

directed the chairpersons of the task teams to select task force members 

and develop the strategies that will be the basis for GPO’s strategic plan by 

June 17, 2004. Our work on transformations has found that establishing 

networks, including a senior executive council, functional teams, or 

crosscutting teams, can help the implementation team conduct the day-today activities of the transformation and help ensure that efforts are 

coordinated and integrated. 

GPO leaders have acknowledged that creating the support capacity and 

accountability for daily transformation activities could help ensure that the 

transformation continues to make progress. These leaders said that 

responsibilities for day-to-day transformation activities could include 

setting priorities, proposing milestones, tracking progress, providing 

analysis to support decision making, and coordinating among teams.

Recommended Next Steps The Public Printer should establish a transformation team, or augment the 

management council, to address the day-to-day management of GPO’s 

transformation effort. The team should include high-performing employees 

who have knowledge and competencies that could help GPO plan its 

future. Establishing such a team could create the focus needed to stimulate 

and sustain GPO’s transformation efforts.

GPO Is Planning Changes to 

Strengthen Its Performance 

Management System

A performance management system can help manage and direct the 

transformation process and serves as the basis for setting expectations for 

individuals’ roles in the transformation. To be successful, transformation 

efforts must have leaders, managers, and employees who have the 

individual competencies to integrate and create synergy among the 

multiple operating units involved in the transformation effort. Individual 

performance and contributions are evaluated on competencies such as 

change management, cultural sensitivity, teamwork and collaboration, and 

information sharing. Leaders, managers, and employees who demonstrate 
Page 40 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

these competencies are rewarded for their success in contributing to the 

achievement of the transformation process.

GPO plans to implement a new performance management system for its 

executives and will later work on changes for employees at other 

organizational levels. As part of this effort, GPO is exploring the use of 

competencies to provide a fuller assessment of performance. For example, 

GPO has developed performance agreements for its senior managers based 

upon the executive core qualifications adopted by the Office of Personnel 

Management for senior executives and included responsibilities such as 

leading strategic change. Each responsibility will be linked to three or four 

competencies. Additionally, the draft performance agreements include 

interim goals that GPO developed for its operating units and other elements 

that we have identified as important for executive performance.27 They 

include, for example, specific levels of performance that GPO plans to link 

to strategic objectives to help senior executives see how they directly 

contribute to organizational results. 

Until GPO’s strategic plan is completed, however, GPO will not be able to 

fully align individual performance competencies or expectations with 

organizational goals. The completion of the strategic plan will provide 

human capital officials with the information needed to develop 

competencies and expectations for employees that have a direct link to 

GPO’s goals, providing employees with the information they need to 

understand how their performance leads to organizational success. 

As part of GPO’s effort to strengthen performance management, GPO plans 

to pilot a new system that, beginning with its senior executives, will more 

Key transformation practice Implementation step

Use the performance management 

system to define responsibility and 

assure accountability for change.

Adopt leading practices to implement effective 

performance management systems with adequate 

safeguards.a

a For information on key practices that we have identified for implementing effective performance 

management systems, see U.S. General Accounting Office, Results-Oriented Cultures: Creating a 

Clear Linkage between Individual Performance and Organizational Success, GAO-03-488

(Washington, D.C.: Mar. 14, 2003).

27U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: Senior Executive Performance 

Management Can Be Significantly Strengthened to Achieve Results, GAO-04-614

(Washington, D.C.: May 26, 2004).
Page 41 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

closely link an individual’s pay with his or her performance. Linking pay to 

performance is a key practice for effective performance management. We 

have reported that efforts to link pay to performance require adequate 

safeguards,28 including reasonable transparency and appropriate 

accountability mechanisms, to ensure the fair, effective, and 

nondiscriminatory implementation of the system. The Human Resources 

Office has begun developing a pay-for-performance program that will use 

measures of effectiveness that directly link individual performance with 

organizational goals and objectives. The newly established Workforce 

Development, Education and Training Office will be required to develop 

and deliver training to supervisors and managers on performance 

management. The objective is to ensure that supervisors and managers are 

equipped with the necessary skills to effectively manage their employees, 

help drive change efforts, and achieve results. 

Recommended Next Steps The CHCO should continue developing a performance management system 

for all GPO employees that creates a line of sight by linking employee 

performance with agency goals. The CHCO should ensure that GPO’s new 

performance management system has adequate safeguards, including 

reasonable transparency and appropriate accountability mechanisms, to 

ensure the fair, effective, and nondiscriminatory implementation of the 

system.

GPO Has Improved 

Communication, but Can 

Better Address Employee 

Needs 

Communication, an important management control, is most effective when 

done early, clearly, and often, and when it is downward, upward, and 

lateral. Successful organizations have comprehensive communication 

strategies that reach out to employees, customers, and stakeholders and 

seek to genuinely engage them in the transformation process. 

28GAO-03-488.

Key implementation practice Implementation steps

Establish a communication 

strategy to create shared 

expectations and report related 

progress.

• Communicate early and often to build trust.

• Ensure consistency of message.

• Encourage two-way communication.

• Provide information to meet specific needs of 

employees.
Page 42 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

The Public Printer communicated his intention to transform GPO early and 

often and to various audiences. For example, in his confirmation hearing in 

October 2002, the Public Printer told Congress that GPO “must step back 

and take a new look at the changing and emerging information needs of its 

customers and develop a deeper understanding of its true strengths so that 

it can determine how best to build a new business model.” Then again, just 

8 days after the Public Printer took office, he publicly stated his intention 

to transform GPO. In his communications with employees, the Public 

Printer has also frequently expressed his intention to transform GPO. For 

example, GPO’s biweekly management newsletter, the GPO Link, often 

contains articles about GPO’s transformation. Transforming organizations 

have found that communicating information early and often helps to build 

an understanding of the purpose of the planned changes and builds trust 

among employees and stakeholders. 

GPO leadership has communicated a consistent message about the 

transformation to employees, customers, and other stakeholders through 

such methods as sponsoring conferences, attending customers’ meetings, 

and speaking with relevant trade magazines. For example, in 

correspondence with the Congress, employees, and the library community, 

the Public Printer and other senior managers have used similar terms and 

concepts when discussing GPO’s transformation. This consistency is 

important in ensuring that GPO’s employees, customers, and other 

stakeholders understand the current environment under which GPO 

operates. A message to employees and others affected by a transformation 

that is consistent in tone and content can alleviate the uncertainties 

generated during the unsettled times of large-scale change management 

initiatives. 

GPO leadership has encouraged two-way communication by instituting 

methods for employees and others to provide feedback and ask questions. 

For example, GPO’s intranet site has a section called “Ask the Public 

Printer.” On the site, the Public Printer fields questions on issues ranging 

from training opportunities, to building renovation issues, to contingency 

planning. In addition, the Public Printer holds periodic town hall meetings 

that include time for employees in attendance to ask him questions in 

person. In addition, stakeholders have been asked to communicate with 

GPO leaders. For example, on January 22, 2004, the Depository Library
Page 43 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Council29 provided GPO with advice on topics that the Public Printer 

identified as important to the future of GPO. The Public Printer expects to 

use feedback from stakeholders such as the Depository Library Council as 

GPO develops its strategic plan. Two-way communication is central to 

forming the effective internal and external partnerships that are vital to the 

success of any organization. 

GPO leadership has also made significant efforts to improve 

communication between management and employees. For example, GPO 

established the Employee Communications Office, which was developed 

with the vision “to have the best informed workforce in the U.S. 

Government by over-communicating organizational clarity and the mission 

and vision of the new GPO.” An important initiative undertaken by the 

Employee Communications Office is the development of GPO Link, a 

biweekly newsletter that reports on activities of GPO’s top managers. 

Despite these efforts, because GPO’s future mission and strategies have not 

yet been decided, the Public Printer has been unable to communicate the 

nature of the change that GPO needs to make in a way that addresses the 

specific needs of employees. During a communications focus group GPO 

held in October 2003, employees stated that recent efforts to improve 

communication were positive, but failed to provide the specific 

information needed to alleviate job concerns. These concerns were also 

voiced during town hall meetings led by the Public Printer in January 2004 

and were consistent with concerns raised by union representatives in their 

discussions with us about GPO’s transformation. Employees have indicated 

they are unsure about their future in the new GPO, and are seeking specific 

information on the skills they will need to remain useful to GPO. 

Communicating with employees about their specific concerns can help 

them understand how they might be affected and how their responsibilities 

might change with the new organization.

GPO managers, union leaders, and employees have indicated that 

employees are unsure of their role in GPO’s transformation. Union leaders 

told us that much of the communication has been rhetoric with insufficient 

detail regarding how the transformation will affect employees. For 

example, the Public Printer has stated that the transformation will bring 

GPO into the 21st century, but the specifics of what jobs might be lost or 

29The Depository Library Council is an organization established to provide advice on policy 

matters dealing with the Depository Library Program.
Page 44 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

changed have not been discussed because GPO is developing its mission 

and strategic plan. 

Recommended Next Steps The Public Printer can augment GPO’s communication about the 

transformation to include additional information that employees can use to 

understand their role in building the GPO of the 21st century. As GPO’s 

strategic planning effort moves forward, communication with employees 

should include topics such as GPO’s new mission, strategic goals, and in 

particular, employee concerns about their role in the new environment. As 

key decisions are made, communication should address how GPO’s 

transformation will affect employees so that they understand how their 

jobs may be affected, what their rights and protections might be, and how 

their responsibilities might change.

GPO Can Expand the 

Involvement of Employees 

in the Transformation 

Employee involvement strengthens the transformation process by 

including frontline perspectives and experiences. Further, employee 

involvement helps to create the opportunity to establish new networks and 

break down existing organizational silos, increase employees’ 

understanding and acceptance of organizational goals and objectives, and 

gain ownership for new policies and procedures.

The former and Acting CHCO, CIO, CFO, and Managing Director of 

Customer Services told us that they are adopting team-based approaches 

for accomplishing their units’ goals, which includes improved customer 

service. For example, GPO combined the former procurement division with 

the customer services division to create teams of employees who have a 

range of skills to address customer needs. Previously, GPO’s customers 

were shuffled between these two divisions, neither of which was clearly 

accountable for addressing the customers’ needs. A GPO official explained 

that by changing to a team approach, where a group of about five 

employees is responsible for all work with a customer, accountability for 

meeting the needs of that customer is clear and may lead to improved 

Key transformation practice Implementation steps

Involve employees to obtain their 

ideas and gain their ownership for 

the transformation.

• Use employee teams.

• Involve employees in planning and sharing 

performance information.

• Incorporate employee feedback into new policies 

and procedures.

• Delegate authority to appropriate organizational 

levels.
Page 45 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

service. A teams-based approach to operations can create an environment 

characterized by open communication, enhanced flexibility in meeting job 

demands, and a sense of shared responsibility for accomplishing 

organization goals and objectives. 

GPO units can expand the involvement of employees and use their 

feedback in planning and sharing performance information, which can help 

employees accept and understand the goals of their units and their role in 

achieving them. For example, GPO officials told us that the CFO has shared 

goals for his division with his managers, who have, in turn, shared the goals 

with their employees. Therefore, all employees under the CFO know the 

goals of the division and how their work and performance helps realize the 

goals. However, not all division managers have shared goals with their 

employees. The practice of involving employees in planning and sharing 

performance information can be transferred to other GPO units as GPO’s 

transformation progresses.

Major transformations, like GPO’s, often include redesigning work 

processes, changing work rules, or making other changes that are of 

particular concern to employees. GPO has made or plans to make changes 

to many of its policies and procedures. As we mentioned earlier, for 

example, GPO is planning to pilot test a new pay-for-performance system, 

beginning with its senior managers. We have reported on other agencies’ 

attempts to involve employees and unions in developing aspects of its 

personnel systems.30 For example, at the Department of Homeland 

Security, employees and union representatives played a role in shaping the 

design of a proposed personnel system. The design process attempted to 

include employees by creating multiple opportunities for employees to 

provide feedback.

GPO has taken some actions to delegate authority to employees. Soon after 

the new Public Printer took office, GPO instituted a time-off awards 

program, which provides supervisors with a means to recognize employees 

for their productivity, creativity, dedication, and outstanding contributions 

to the mission of GPO. Before GPO created this award program, 

supervisors did not have the authority to recognize and reward outstanding 

performance. In a transformation, employees are more likely to support 

30U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: DHS Personnel System Design Effort 

Provides for Collaboration and Employee Participation, GAO-03-1099 (Washington, D.C.: 

Sept. 30, 2003).
Page 46 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

changes when they have the necessary authority and flexibility—along with 

commensurate accountability and incentives—to advance the 

organization’s goals and improve performance. 

Delegating certain personnel authorities is important for managers and 

supervisors who know the most about an organization’s programs and can 

use those authorities to make those programs work. The former Deputy 

Public Printer told us that decision making on many day-to-day matters was 

centralized within his office. For example, his approval was required for all 

training requests from GPO employees. The current Public Printer has 

delegated authority to approve training to lower level managers who are 

more familiar with the employees’ work requirements and, therefore, have 

a better understanding of the training individual employees need to 

improve their performance. 

We have reported that agency managers and employees have important 

roles in the success of training and development activities.31 Managers are 

responsible not only for reinforcing new competencies, skills, and 

behaviors but also for removing barriers to help employees implement 

learned behaviors on the job. Furthermore, if managers understand and 

support the objectives of training and development efforts, they can 

provide opportunities for employees to successfully use new skills and 

competencies and can model the behavior they expect to see in their 

employees. Employees also need to understand the goals of agencies’ 

training and development efforts and accept responsibility for developing 

their competencies and careers, as well as for improving their 

organizations’ performance.

Recommended Next Steps GPO leadership should involve employees more in planning and decision 

making for the future, allowing employees to gain ownership of the 

transformation. For example, the CHCO should incorporate employee 

feedback as part of the process for developing GPO’s pay for performance 

system and in training and development activities.

31U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: A Guide for Assessing Strategic 

Training and Development Efforts in the Federal Government, GAO-04-546G (Washington, 

D.C.: March 2004).
Page 47 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

World-Class 

Management Practices 

Can Strengthen GPO’s 

Transformation

Successful change efforts start with a vision of radically improved 

performance and the relentless pursuit of that vision. Leaders of successful 

transformations seek to implement best practices in systems and processes 

and guard against automatically retaining the approaches used in the past. 

Instead of developing optimal systems and processes, transforming 

organizations risk devoting attention to attempting to mend less than fully 

efficient and effective systems and processes merely because they are 

already in place. Over the longer term, leaders of successful mergers and 

acquisitions, like leaders of successful organizations generally, seek to 

learn from best practices and create a set of systems and processes that are 

tailored to the specific needs and circumstances of the transforming 

organization. 

GPO leadership has articulated a vision to transform GPO into a worldclass organization and has taken some initial steps toward this objective, 

most notably with respect to human capital management. However, 

because significant change efforts are difficult and take a long time, 

continued leadership attention is needed. The commitment of the Public 

Printer, the appointment of a COO, and other key leadership selections are 

positive steps in this regard. In particular, we have reported that COOs can 

be part of a broader effort to elevate attention to management and 

transformation issues, integrate various key management and 

transformation efforts, and institutionalize accountability for addressing 

management issues leading a transformation. By their very nature, the 

problems and challenges facing agencies are crosscutting and thus require 

coordinated and integrated solutions. However, the risk is that 

management responsibilities (including, but not limited to, information 

technology, financial management, and human capital) will be “stovepiped” 

and thus will not be carried out in a comprehensive, ongoing, and 

integrated manner.32

GPO Has Taken Numerous 

Actions to Strengthen 

Human Capital Management

Having effective human capital policies and procedures is a critical factor 

in an organization’s management control environment. GPO’s efforts to 

strengthen human capital management demonstrate a commitment to 

these management controls. 

32U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: Observations on Agencies’ 

Implementation of the Chief Human Capital Officers Act, GAO-04-800T (Washington, D.C.: 

May 18, 2004).
Page 48 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

In October 2003, we reported on how GPO leadership could advance its 

transformation through strategic human capital management and made 

numerous recommendations to GPO leadership that were based on leading 

practices in strategic human capital management.33 Taken as a whole, these 

recommendations represent a framework for radically improving GPO’s 

human capital practices. GPO’s Human Capital Office is using our October 

2003 report34 as GPO’s roadmap for transforming its human capital 

management and is actively implementing the recommendations we made. 

Much of GPO’s progress in improving its human capital management has 

been described previously in this report. Our recommendations focus on 

four interrelated areas:

• communicating the role of managers in GPO’s transformation, 

• strengthening the role of the human resources office, 

• developing a strategic workforce plan to ensure GPO has the skills and 

knowledge it needs for the future, and 

• using a strategic performance management system to drive change. 

GPO has made clear progress toward adopting the leading practices that 

we described in our October report, and has shown a continuing interest in 

improving GPO’s Human Capital Office by identifying management best 

practices used by other organizations. The experience of transforming 

organizations, including GAO, has shown that transformation must be 

based on the best, most up-to-date management practices to reach its full 

potential.35 Consistent with this practice, GPO leadership requested our 

assistance in identifying and describing approaches and strategies used by 

other organizations to restructure their workforces.

In response to this request, on January 20, 2004, we briefed GPO leadership 

on the workforce restructuring efforts of the Federal Deposit Insurance 

33GAO-04-85.

34U.S. General Accounting Office, Government Printing Office: Advancing GPO’s 

Transformation Effort through Strategic Human Capital Management, GAO-04-85

(Washington, D.C.: Oct. 20, 2003).

35U.S. General Accounting Office, Results-Oriented Government: Shaping the Government 

to Meet 21st Century Challenges, GAO-03-1168T (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 17, 2003).
Page 49 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Corporation, GAO, and the Treasury’s Financial Management Service. The 

briefing presented the lessons that these agencies learned from their 

workforce restructuring efforts, with particular emphasis on efforts to 

assist employees in finding other employment. The approaches and 

strategies we highlighted were retraining, outplacement assistance, 

workforce restructuring planning, communication, and employee and 

union involvement. Our briefing contained specific examples, related 

agency materials, and contacts that could provide further information and 

assistance to GPO.

GPO’s CIO Organization Has 

Begun to Transform

The Public Printer has stated that the new vision of GPO will be an agency 

whose primary mission will be to capture digitally, organize, maintain, 

authenticate, distribute, and provide permanent public access to the 

information products and services of the federal government. To execute 

this vision, he states that GPO must deploy the technology needed by 

federal agencies and the public to gather and produce digital documents in 

a uniformly structured database in order to authenticate documents 

disseminated over the Internet and to preserve the information for 

permanent public access. 

However, improved information technology (IT) systems such as those 

contained in the Public Printer’s vision are not simple to develop or 

acquire. Through our research of best IT management practices and our 

evaluations of agency IT management performance, we have identified a 

set of essential and complementary management disciplines that provide a 

sound foundation for IT management. These include

• enterprise architecture,

• IT investment management,

• software/system development and acquisition,

• information security, and 

• IT human capital.

GPO’s CIO understands that his IT organization, like all of GPO, will have to 

transform to meet current and future needs. More specifically, he 

acknowledges the need to establish IT management policies, procedures, 
Page 50 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

and practices in the key areas listed above. The CIO has taken steps, or 

plans to take steps, to begin improving IT in each of these areas. 

Enterprise Architecture An enterprise architecture is to an organization’s operations and systems as 

a set of blueprints is to a building. That is, building blueprints provide those 

who own, construct, and maintain the building with a clear and 

understandable picture of the building’s uses, features, functions, and 

supporting systems, including relevant building standards. Further, the 

building blueprints capture the relationships among building components 

and govern the construction process. Enterprise architectures do nothing 

less, providing to people at all organizational levels an explicit, common, 

and meaningful structural frame of reference that allows an agency to 

understand (1) what the enterprise does; (2) when, where, how, and why it 

does it; and (3) what it uses to do it. 

An enterprise architecture provides a clear and comprehensive picture of 

the structure of an entity, whether an organization or a functional or 

mission area. This picture consists of snapshots of both the enterprise’s 

current or “as-is” technical and operational environments, its target or “tobe” technical and operational environments, and a capital investment 

roadmap for transitioning from the current environment to the target 

environment. An enterprise architecture is an essential tool for effectively 

and efficiently engineering business practices, implementing and evolving 

supporting systems, and transforming an organization. Managed properly, it 

can clarify and help optimize the interdependencies and relationships 

among an organization’s business operations and the underlying IT 

infrastructure and applications that support these operations. Employed in 

concert with other important management controls, such as portfoliobased capital planning and investment control processes, architectures can 

greatly increase the chances that organizations’ operational and IT 

environments will be configured to optimize mission performance. Our 

experience with federal agencies has shown that investing in IT without 

defining these investments in the context of an enterprise architecture 

often results in systems that are duplicative, not well integrated, and 

unnecessarily costly to maintain and interface. The development of an 

enterprise architecture is an essential part of a successful organizational 

transformation. 

Our research has shown that an organization should ensure that adequate 

resources are provided for developing the architecture and that 

responsibility for directing, overseeing, and approving enterprise 

architecture development is assigned to a committee or group with 
Page 51 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

representation from across the organization. Establishing this 

organizationwide responsibility and accountability is important in 

demonstrating the organization’s commitment to building the management 

foundation and obtaining support for the development and use of the 

enterprise architecture from across the organization. This group should 

include executive-level representatives from each line of business, and 

these representatives should have the authority to commit resources to 

architecture-related efforts and enforce decisions within their respective 

organizational units. Our research shows that enterprise architecture 

efforts also benefit from developing an architecture program management 

plan that specifies how and when the architecture is to be developed, 

including a detailed work breakdown structure, resource estimates (e.g., 

funding, staffing, and training), performance measures, and management 

controls for developing and maintaining the architecture. The plan 

demonstrates the organizations’ commitment to managing enterprise 

architecture development and maintenance. 

Currently, GPO does not have such an enterprise architecture. Its CIO 

agrees that an enterprise architecture is an important tool and is working to 

develop one for GPO. As the first step towards developing an enterprise 

architecture, the CIO organization is in the process of documenting GPO’s 

current business processes and supporting IT architecture (the “as-is” 

enterprise architecture). In doing this work, the agency is focusing first on 

those business items of greater interest to two sets of critical customers—

the Congress and users of the Federal Register. The CIO has also hired a 

manager to lead this effort who has significant experience in the 

development and institutionalization of enterprise architecture and related 

processes. 

Investment Management In concert with a properly developed and institutionalized enterprise 

architecture, an effective and efficient IT investment management process 

is key to a successful transformation effort. An effective and efficient IT 

investment process allows agencies to maximize the value of their IT 

investments and to minimize the risks of IT acquisitions. This is critically 

important because IT projects, while having the capability to significantly 

improve an organization’s performance, can become very costly, risky, and 

unproductive. Federal agency IT projects too frequently incur cost 

overruns and schedule slippages while contributing little to mission-related 

outcomes. 

GPO’s transformation may require significant investment in IT and related 

efforts. Therefore, it is essential that GPO effectively manage such 
Page 52 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

investments. We have developed a guide to effective IT investment 

management based on a select/control/evaluate model: 

• Select. The organization (1) identifies and analyzes each project’s risks 

and returns before committing significant funds to any project and 

(2) selects those IT projects that best support its mission needs. This 

process should be repeated each time, reselecting even ongoing 

investments, as described below. 

• Control. The organization ensures that, as projects develop and 

investment expenditures continue, the project continues to meet 

mission needs at the expected levels of cost and risk. If the project is not 

meeting expectations or if problems have arisen, steps are quickly taken 

to address the deficiencies. If mission needs have changed, the 

organization can adjust its objectives for the project and appropriately 

modify expected project outcomes.

• Evaluate. The organization compares actual versus expected outcomes 

after a project is fully implemented. This is done to (1) assess the 

project’s impact on mission performance, (2) identify any changes or 

modifications to the project that may be needed, and (3) revise the 

investment management process based on lessons learned.

To oversee the investment management process, an investment review 

board is established, made up of managers, that is responsible and 

accountable for selecting and monitoring projects based on the agency’s 

investment management criteria. The IT investment board is a key 

component in the investment management process. An organizationwide 

investment board has oversight responsibilities for developing and 

maintaining the organization’s documented IT investment process. It plays 

a key role in establishing an appropriate IT investment management 

structure and processes for selecting, controlling, and evaluating IT 

investments. The organization may choose to make this board the same 

board that provides executive guidance and support for the enterprise 

architecture. Such overlap of responsibilities may enhance the ability of the 

board to ensure that investment decisions are consistent with the 

architecture and that it reflects the needs of the organization.

This model allows an organization to effectively choose, monitor, and 

evaluate projects. GPO intends to complete a major transformation of itself 

within a few years, with most of its transformation based on improved IT 
Page 53 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

capabilities. For an organization like GPO, in the midst of transformation, 

effective oversight of its IT investments is essential. 

Currently, GPO does not have an IT investment management process. 

GPO’s CIO said that his review of projects at GPO indicated that in the past, 

for example, most projects were selected without documentation such as a 

cost-benefit analysis, economic justification, alternatives analysis, and fully 

validated requirements. The CIO’s long-term goal is to implement a 

standard investment management process requiring such items. As a 

beginning, he is working on a list of required documents that each new 

information technology proposal will have to provide before it can be 

approved by GPO management. He is holding workshops aimed at 

introducing the business managers to this documentation and providing 

training in the meaning and use of these documents in support of project 

initiation. 

Software/System Development 

and Acquisition Capability

Underlying enterprise architecture management and investment 

management is the ability to effectively and efficiently develop and acquire 

systems and software. GPO’s CIO is aware that his organization’s 

development and acquisition capabilities could be improved and plans to 

take steps to achieve these improvements. 

The CIO has tasked one of his new managers to begin improving key 

process areas for software development and acquisition. On the basis of 

this manager’s recommendation, GPO has selected the software acquisition 

models of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) as 

its standard for this process. The IEEE defines a nine-step process for the 

acquisition of software, which GPO plans to implement for future software 

acquisitions. The CIO also plans to implement a process for software 

development, but has not determined which model to use. 

IT Security Dramatic increases in computer interconnectivity, especially in the use of 

the Internet, are revolutionizing the way our government, our nation, and 

much of the world communicate and do business. The benefits from this 

have been enormous. However, this widespread interconnectivity poses 

significant risks to computer systems and, more importantly, to the critical 

operations and infrastructures they support, such as telecommunications, 

power distribution, and national defense. The same factors that benefit 

operations—speed and accessibility—if not properly controlled, also make 

it possible for individuals and organizations to inexpensively interfere with 

or eavesdrop on these operations from remote locations for purposes of 

fraud or sabotage, or for other malicious or mischievous purposes. In 
Page 54 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

addition, natural disasters and inadvertent errors by authorized computer 

users can have devastating consequences if information resources are 

poorly protected. 

As GPO transforms, its information resources will become increasingly 

dependent upon correctly functioning IT. Whereas in the past, GPO needed 

only to have several paper copies of each document available, greater 

security measures will be required as GPO implements a database for 

permanent public access to all federal government information. 

GPO’s current information security could be improved. In fiscal year 2003, 

an independent audit of GPO’s internal controls, done as part of a review of 

GPO’s financial statements,36 found that GPO did not have in place an 

effective security management structure that provides a framework and 

continuing cycle of activity for managing risk, developing security policies, 

and monitoring the accuracy of GPO’s computer security controls. Among 

the specific findings:

• Security-related policies and procedures had not been documented or 

had not been kept current and did not reflect GPO’s current 

environment. These policies also provided no guidance for developing 

risk assessment programs.

• Local network administrators did not have guidance in developing 

formal procedures to perform network administration duties, such as 

creating and maintaining user accounts, periodically reviewing user 

accounts, and reviewing audit logs.

• GPO had not established a comprehensive business continuity and 

disaster recovery plan for its mainframe, client-server platforms, and 

major software applications. 

The CIO has ongoing projects aimed at addressing each of the issues 

outlined by the audit organization. First, he is in the process of issuing new 

security-related policies and procedures reflecting GPO’s current 

environment. The CIO’s security organization is also working on policies 

and procedures and guidance for local network administrators. Finally, 

GPO is negotiating with other legislative branch agencies to use their 

36GPO Annual Report, Fiscal Year 2003, Independent Auditor’s Report (Washington, D.C.: 

2003).
Page 55 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

backup computer facility and is developing a business continuity and 

disaster recovery plan for GPO’s platforms and major software 

applications. 

IT Human Capital As mentioned earlier, the Public Printer has emphasized the importance of 

strategically managing GPO’s people in order to successfully transform the 

organization. The CIO, like other GPO managers, considers human capital a 

vital part of his organization’s operations as well as critical to the success 

of GPO’s transformation efforts. 

The CIO and his managers are reviewing the current human capital 

situation and taking interim steps to improve. At the same time, they are 

working with GPO’s human capital organization to develop a strategy to 

improve GPO’s human capital management capability for the long term. 

For example, the CIO has tasked each IT area manager to complete such a 

review of his or her staff and report the results to the CIO. While a few 

needed skill sets will be hired from the outside, the emphasis for the CIO 

organization in the near term will be on finding needed skills inside the 

organization and retraining individuals with related skills. The CIO is also 

providing training to his CIO staff on project management and related 

issues. 

Recommended Next Steps Like efforts in other parts of GPO, the CIO’s actions to improve GPO’s IT 

capabilities are important first steps. However, much more needs to be 

done to establish an effective IT investment process, to establish an 

enterprise architecture, and to improve the agency’s system development 

and acquisition, security, and human capital capabilities. Therefore, we 

recommend that the Public Printer direct the GPO CIO to do the following.

• Begin an effort to create and implement a comprehensive plan for the 

development of an enterprise architecture that addresses completion of 

GPO’s current or “as-is” architecture, development of a target or “to-be” 

architecture, and development of a capital investment plan for 

transitioning from the current to the target architecture. As part of the 

capital investment plan, designate an architecture review board of 

agency executives who are responsible and accountable for overseeing 

and approving architecture development and maintenance, and 

establish an enterprise architecture program management plan.

• Begin an effort to develop and implement an investment management 

process by (1) developing guidance for the selection, control, and 

evaluation processes and then (2) establishing an investment review 
Page 56 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

board responsible and accountable for endorsing the guidance, 

monitoring its implementation, and executing decisions on projects 

based on the guidance. 

• Develop and implement a comprehensive plan for software 

development and acquisition process improvement that specifies 

measurable goals and time frames, sets priorities for initiatives, 

estimates resource requirements (for training staff and funding), and 

defines a process improvement management structure.

• Establish the appropriate security and business continuity policies, 

procedures, and systems to ensure that its information products are 

adequately protected.

• Ensure that GPO’s Human Capital Office, in its efforts to develop and 

implement a human capital strategy, considers the special needs of IT 

human capital. 

Financial Management’s 

Role in Supporting 

Transformation

Sound financial management practices that produce reliable and timely 

financial information for management decision making are a vital part of a 

strategic plan to achieve transformation. In recent testimony37 the Public 

Printer acknowledged that GPO is in a precarious financial position with 

sustained significant financial losses over the past 5 years, which appear to 

be structural in nature. Such structural losses point out the clear need for 

transformation. In response to GPO’s financial condition, the Public Printer 

has taken positive, immediate steps to stem losses, cut costs, and curtail 

certain program activities. 

Given the importance of GPO’s business transformation, it is imperative 

that transformation efforts be clearly linked to financial management 

results and receive the sustained leadership needed to improve the 

economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of GPO’s business operations 

through its transformation plan. The transformation plan should provide a 

strategic-level “road map” from the current environment to the planned 

future environment, including a link to current cost-cutting and other 

37Bruce R. James, Public Printer of the United States, Statement Before the Committee on 

House Administration U.S. House of Representatives “Transformation of the U.S. 

Government Printing Office to Meet the Demands of the 21st Century” (Washington, D.C.: 

Apr. 28, 2004).
Page 57 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

financial improvement initiatives. In addition, management needs reliable 

and up-to-date information on progress, including financial results.

As discussed in our executive guide on best practices in financial 

management,38 dramatic changes over the past decade in the business 

environment have driven finance organizations to reevaluate their role. The 

role of financial management and reporting will be critical to managing the 

progress and impact of GPO’s transformation efforts.

In the transformation environment, GPO will need to define a vision for its 

financial management organization such that it is a value-creating, 

customer-focused partner in business results in order to build a world-class 

finance organization and to help achieve GPO’s transformation goals. As 

reported and shown in figure 6, certain success factors, goals, and 

practices are instrumental in achieving financial management excellence.

38U.S. General Accounting Office, Executive Guide: Creating Value Through World-class 

Financial Management, GAO/AIMD-00-134 (Washington, D.C.: April 2000).
Page 58 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Figure 6: Achieving Best Practices in Financial Management

We compared best practices that would be most applicable to GPO’s 

financial management operations and transformation efforts to many of the 

activities and goals planned by GPO. Overall, GPO and its CFO have taken 

many actions and have plans for efforts that are consistent with many best 

practices in financial management; however, additional emphasis is needed 

for other best practices that enhance GPO’s transformation and to ensure 

that planned efforts are fully supported. In addition, GPO’s strategic 

planning for transformation should include the actions, plans, and goals to 

be initiated by its CFO and its financial management team to ensure that 

Source: GAO.

Vision: To be a value-creating, customer-focused partner in business results

Success

factors

Goals

Practices

Leadership Organization Technology

Culture Customer Process

People

Make financial 

management

an entitywide

prority.

1. Build a 

foundation of

control and

accountability.

2. Provide clear

strong executive

leadership.

3. Use training

to change the

culture and 

engage line

managers.

Redefine the

role of

finance.

Provide

meaningful

information to

decision

makers.

Build a team

that delivers

results.

4. Assess the

finance

organization's

current role in

meeting

mission

objectives.

5. Maximize

the efficiency

of day-to-day

accounting

activities.

6. Organize 

finance to

add value.

7. Develop

systems that

support the

partnership

between

finance and

operations.

8. Reengineer

processes in

conjunction

with new

technology.

9. Translate

financial data

into meaningful information.

10. Develop a

finance team

with the right

mix of skills

and 

competencies

11. Build a

finance

organization

that attracts

and retains

talent.
Page 59 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

GPO’s weakening financial position does not undermine its transformation 

goals. 

Making Financial 

Management an Entitywide 

Priority

Our prior report observes that the chief executive should recognize the 

important role the finance organization plays in improving overall business 

performance and involve key business managers in financial management 

improvement initiatives. This is especially important in a transformation 

environment. In order to make financial management an entitywide 

priority, the organization should (1) build a foundation of control and 

accountability, (2) provide clear strong executive leadership, and (3) use 

training to change the culture and engage line managers.

GPO has shown that financial reporting and the audit process are 

important management and oversight tools for building a foundation of 

control and accountability by routinely receiving “unqualified” audit 

opinions on its annual financial statements. In addition, GPO receives an 

opinion on its management assertion on internal controls from its external 

auditor. Additional accountability is provided through oversight from the 

GPO Office of Inspector General established by Title 44, U.S. Code, section 

3901. Also, GPO has expanded reported financial information beyond 

audited financial statements to include performance information on 

revolving fund operations such as printing and binding operations, 

purchased printing, and procured printing.

Our executive guide on best practices in financial management also 

recognizes that the chief executive officers of leading organizations 

understand the important role that the CFO and the finance organization 

play in improving overall business performance of the organization. 

Consequently, the CFO is a central figure on the top management team and 

heavily involved in strategic planning and decision making. In this regard, 

the Public Printer established the CFO position shortly after arriving at 

GPO and has included the CFO as a member of the management council.

The key to successfully managing change and changing organizational 

culture is gaining the support of line management. To change the 

organizational culture and enlist the support of line managers, many 

organizations use training programs. This training may be geared towards 

providing line managers with a greater appreciation of the financial 

implications of their business decisions and transformation efforts.
Page 60 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

GPO has engaged its nonfinancial managers with financial-related goals. 

For example, customer services, which includes purchased printing, has a 

goal of increasing revenue by identifying potential government work and 

increasing business to GPO. As discussed earlier in this report, account 

managers are assigned to increase revenue from federal agencies through 

regular customer agency visits, presentations at selected agencies to 

highlight GPO services, and targeting customers for specialized outreach 

efforts. 

GPO could provide a greater emphasis on training its nonfinancial 

managers on the financial implications of business decisions and the value 

of financial information. Training on how to fully use the financial 

information they receive not only produces better managers, but also helps 

break down functional barriers that can affect productivity and impede 

improvement efforts, especially in a time of transformation. In addition, 

training and other tools facilitate and accelerate the pace of the change 

initiative, which helps to reduce the opposition that could ultimately 

undermine the effort.

Redefine the Role of 

Finance

Today, leading finance organizations are focusing more on internal 

customer requirements by providing products and service that directly 

support strategic decision making and ultimately improve overall business 

performance. Again, this is critical in a transformation environment. Best 

practices reported by our prior review of leading financial organizations 

include actions to (1) assess the finance organization’s current role in 

meeting mission objectives, (2) maximize the efficiency of day-to-day 

accounting activities, and (3) organize finance to add value.

Consistent with best practices for redefining financial operations, GPO has 

plans to integrate on-line workflow systems for all major operations 

including the receipts and processing operations, to streamline the budget 

formulation process, and to eliminate all paper-based accounting and 

budget reports. Customer feedback is also useful both in the future to 

assess the perceived benefits of changes related to transformation and to 

use as a baseline on which to compare future changes. The CFO plans to 

establish a baseline of information on customer satisfaction based on our 

survey of GPO’s major customers. This includes a planned assessment of 

customer satisfaction with services provided, identification of areas for 

improvement, implementation of plans to increase the value and efficiency 

of services provided, and identification of key performance measures.
Page 61 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Provide Meaningful 

Information to Decision 

Makers 

Financial information is meaningful when it is useful, relevant, timely, and 

reliable. Therefore, organizations should have the systems and processes 

required to produce meaningful financial information needed for 

management decisions. Financial organizations should (1) develop systems 

that support the partnership between finance and operations, 

(2) reengineer processes in conjunction with new technology, and 

(3) translate financial data into meaningful information.

Our executive guide for best practices in financial management suggests 

that relevant financial information should be presented in an 

understandable, simple format, with suitable amounts of detail showing the 

financial impact and results of cost-cutting initiatives and transformation 

efforts. Leading finance organizations have designed reporting formats 

around key business drivers to provide executives and managers with 

relevant, forward-looking information on business unit performance. We 

believe that such reports can be a key to linking GPO’s financial 

management efforts to transformation. 

GPO provides financial information to its key decision makers that is 

consistent with best practices for reports that are useful and relevant to 

key decision makers. The GPO CFO provides monthly summaries for each 

of GPO’s key operational areas, including plant operations, customer 

service, sales program, salaries and expenses programs, and administrative 

support operations, as well as other information on the status of 

appropriated funds, billings, and contractors. The information includes 

cumulative year-to-date summaries, profit and loss statements, use of 

employees and staff levels, and other information specific to each 

operational area. The CFO organization is developing plans to provide 

financial, administrative, and analytical support to all of GPO in addition to 

the monthly information packages provided to the management council.

GPO is also developing plans to replace legacy information systems to 

integrate and streamline internal and external ordering as well as inventory 

and accounts payable processes. GPO expects to greatly improve the 

monthly financial processes with information necessary to make 

calculations regarding time spent on performance or cost analysis and on 

transaction processing. This information can be useful in gauging office 

efficiencies as a result of changes and transformation efforts.
Page 62 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Build a Team That 

Delivers Results

The finance function has evolved over the past decade from a paper-driven, 

labor-intensive, clerical role to a more consultative role as advisor, analyst, 

and business partner. Many leading finance organizations have seen a 

corresponding shift in the mix of skills and competencies required to 

perform this new role. 

GPO has plans and goals that are consistent with best practices for 

financial organizations. GPO should ensure that these plans are completed, 

fully supported, and expanded, especially in light of the critical function 

that finance will play in GPO’s transformation efforts. Specifically, the CFO 

is completing input for training plans that include both skill and education 

assessments of administrative support staff, budget operations staff, and 

staff in the Office of Comptroller. The CFO stated that he is directly 

involved in recruiting talented staff for GPO’s financial operations and is 

coordinating with the human resource office on developing a career path 

and opportunities for rotational assignments for financial-related staff.

While these planned and developed efforts are consistent with best 

practices for financial organizations, GPO should keep focused on the need 

to ensure that its financial professionals are equipped to meet new 

challenges and support their agency’s mission and goals. This requires GPO 

to develop a finance team with the right mix of skills and competencies and 

to play the role needed in GPO’s transformation efforts.

GPO has taken actions through ongoing efforts and planned goals that are 

often consistent with best practices for financial management. 

Nevertheless, unless it includes critical financial management activities in 

strategic plans for transformation, GPO creates the risk of undermining its 

ultimate goal of successful transformation. Without the link to 

transformation, GPO may lack the commitment to sustain sound financial 

management and lose the benefit of best practices that may be used as 

tools to assist decision makers during a period of great change. 

We recommend that GPO

• emphasize training on the usefulness and understanding of financial 

information to nonfinancial managers who are critical to GPO’s business 

operations;

• ensure that planned GPO and CFO efforts and goals in redefining the 

role of finance, providing information to decision makers, and building a 
Page 63 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

team that delivers results receive the full and consistent support of 

GPO’s top management;

• ensure that management is receiving the financial information needed to 

manage day-to-day operations and track progress against 

transformation goals; and

• recognize the importance of financial management and reporting in 

strategic plans for transformation.

Concluding 

Observations

The Public Printer has taken action to transform GPO in response to 

changes in the environment for printing and information dissemination. 

Change is not optional for GPO—it is required, and it is driven by declines 

in GPO’s printing volumes, printing revenues, and document sales. The 

panel we convened of printing and information dissemination experts 

identified options for GPO’s future that focused on GPO’s role in 

information dissemination rather than printing. GPO leadership is using the 

panel’s suggestions to inform its strategic plan and set a direction for the 

agency’s transformation.

We have noted that setting a clear direction for the future is vital to GPO’s 

transformation. GPO’s draft strategic plan is to be completed imminently; 

however, its transformation efforts are at a critical juncture, and GPO 

leadership will need to take further actions to strengthen and sustain GPO’s 

transformation by using the nine key practices that we identified to help 

agencies successfully transform. One of these practices, related to ensuring 

that top management drives the transformation, has already been fully 

applied by GPO’s leadership. Our recommendations, outlined in this report, 

will assist GPO with the implementation of the eight practices where GPO’s 

efforts are still under way.

GPO leadership has articulated a vision to transform GPO into a worldclass organization and has taken some initial steps toward this objective. 

GPO is actively implementing our prior recommendations to strengthen 

strategic human capital management and has also taken steps toward 

improving information technology and information technology 

management. GPO could build on this progress by focusing additional 

leadership attention on adopting best practices in these areas.
Page 64 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Agency Comments and 

Our Evaluation

We provided a draft of this report on June 9, 2004, to the Public Printer for 

review and comment. We received written comments from the Public 

Printer, which are reprinted in appendix II. The Public Printer agreed with 

the content, findings, and recommendations of the draft report. 

In his written comments, the Public Printer stated that this report, together 

with our October 2003 report on human capital management, will support 

many future actions that are necessary to bring about a successful 

transformation of GPO. For example, GPO will use our recommendations, 

along with the panel’s suggestions, to develop a customer service model 

that partners with GPO’s agency customers to meet their publishing needs. 

Further, the Public Printer said that he fully agrees with our assessment of 

GPO’s human capital environment and will make significant investments in 

workforce development in order to train existing employees in the skills 

required for 21st century printing and information processing. In addition, 

he added that GPO is moving toward becoming a world-class organization 

in both financial management and information technology management by 

adopting leading business practices.

GPO also provided minor technical clarifications, which we incorporated 

as appropriate in this report.

We are sending copies to the Public Printer, as well as the Joint Committee 

on Printing, the House Appropriations Legislative Subcommittee, the 

Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, and the House Committee 

on Administration. We will also make copies available to others upon 

request. In addition, the report will be available at no charge on GAO’s Web 

site at http://www.gao.gov.

If you have any questions about this report, please contact J. Christopher 

Mihm or Steven Lozano on (202) 512-6806 or mihmj@gao.gov and 

lozanos@gao.gov. Questions concerning the expert panel, the survey of 

executive branch agencies, and information technology issues should be 

directed to Linda Koontz at (202) 512-6240 or Tonia Johnson at (202) 512-

6447 or koontzl@gao.gov and johnsontl@gao.gov. Questions about GPO’s 

financial management should be directed to Jeanette Franzel at (202) 512-

9471 or Jack Hufnagle at (202) 512-9470 or franzelj@gao.gov or 

hufnaglej@gao.gov. Other contributors to this report were Barbara Collier, 
Page 65 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Benjamin Crawford, William Reinsberg, Amy Rosewarne, and Warren 

Smith.

J. Christopher Mihm

Managing Director, Strategic Issues

Linda Koontz

Director, Information Technology

Jeanette Franzel

Director, Financial Management and Assurance
Page 66 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Appendix I

Scope and Methodology ApApenednxidexiIs

To help explore the options for the future for the Government Prining 

Office (GPO), we contracted with the National Academy of Sciences to 

convene a panel of experts to discuss (1) trends in printing, publishing, and 

dissemination and (2) the future role of GPO. In working with the National 

Academy to develop an agenda for the panel sessions, we consulted with 

key officials at GPO, representatives of library associations, including the 

Association of Research Libraries and the American Library Association, 

and other subject matter experts. The National Academy assembled a panel 

of experts on printing and publishing technologies, information 

dissemination technologies, the printing industry, and trends in printing 

and dissemination. This panel met on December 8 and 9, 2003. 

To obtain information on GPO’s printing and dissemination activities—

including revenues and costs—we collected and analyzed key documents 

and data, including laws and regulations; studies of GPO operations; prior 

audits; historical trends for printing volumes and prices; and financial, 

budget, and appropriations reports and data. We did not independently 

verify GPO’s financial information, but did perform limited tests of the 

work performed by external auditors. We also interviewed appropriate 

officials from GPO, the Library of Congress, and the Office of Management 

and Budget. To determine how GPO collects and disseminates government 

information, we collected and analyzed documents and data on the 

depository libraries, the cataloging and indexing program, and the 

International Exchange Service program. We also interviewed appropriate 

officials from GPO. 

To determine executive branch agencies’ current reported printing 

expenditures, equipment inventories, and preferences, familiarity and level 

of satisfaction with services provided by GPO, and current methods for 

disseminating information to the public, we developed two surveys of 

GPO’s customers in the executive branch. We sent our first survey to 

executive agencies that are major users of GPO’s printing programs and 

services. It contained questions on the department’s or agency’s 

(1) familiarity with these programs and services and (2) level of satisfaction 

with the customer service function. These major users, according to GPO, 

account for the majority of printing done through GPO. We sent one survey 

each to 7 independent agencies and 11 departments that manage printing 

centrally. We also sent one survey each to 15 component agencies within 3 

departments that manage printing in a decentralized manner. A total of 33 

departments and agencies were surveyed. The response rate for the user 

survey was 91 percent (30 of 33 departments and agencies). 
Appendix I

Scope and Methodology

Page 67 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

We sent our second survey to print officers who manage printing services 

for departments and agencies. These print officers act as liaisons to GPO 

and manage in-house printing operations. This survey contained questions 

concerning the department’s or agency’s (1) level of satisfaction with GPO’s 

procured printing and information dissemination functions; (2) printing 

preferences, equipment inventories, and expenditures; and (3) information 

dissemination processes. These agencies include those that were sent the 

user survey plus two others that do not use GPO services. We sent this 

survey to 11 departments that manage printing centrally, 15 component 

agencies within 3 departments that manage printing in a decentralized 

manner, and 9 independent agencies. A total of 35 departments and 

agencies were surveyed. The response rate for the print officer survey was 

83 percent (29 of 35 departments and agencies). 

To develop these survey instruments, we researched executive agencies’ 

printing and dissemination issues with the assistance of GPO’s Customer 

Services and Organizational Assistance Offices. We used this research to 

develop a series of questions designed to obtain and aggregate the 

information that we needed to answer our objectives. After we developed 

the questions and created the two survey instruments, we shared them with 

GPO officials. We received feedback on the survey questions from a 

number of internal GPO organizations including Printing Procurement, 

Customer Services, Information Dissemination, and Organizational 

Assistance. 

We pretested the executive branch surveys with staff at the Department of 

Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency. We chose these 

agencies because each had a long-term relationship with GPO, experience 

with agency printing, and familiarity with governmentwide printing and 

dissemination issues. Finally, we reviewed customer lists to determine the 

appropriate agencies to receive the executive branch surveys. We did not 

independently verify agencies’ responses to the surveys.

To assess GPO’s actions and plans for the transformation, we reviewed 

statements by the Public Printer, Superintendent of Documents, and other 

senior leaders; analyzed draft performance agreements, employee surveys, 

communication plans, and strategic planning documents; GPO policies and 

procedures; organizational charts; audited financial statements; 

information from GPO’s intranet; communications with employees from 

the Employee Communications Office and Public Relations; and other 

relevant documentation.
Appendix I

Scope and Methodology

Page 68 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

To obtain additional information and perspectives on GPO’s transformation 

issues, we interviewed key senior GPO officials, including the Deputy 

Public Printer; Chief Operating Officer; Chief of Staff; Deputy Chief of Staff; 

Superintendent of Documents; Deputy Superintendent of Documents; 

Managing Director of Plant Operations; Managing Director of Customer 

Services; the former and Acting Chief Human Capital Officer; Chief 

Financial Officer; Chief Information Officer; and Director, Office of 

Innovations and New Technology. We also interviewed GPO officials at the 

next level of management responsible for information dissemination, 

customer service, and human capital. To get employee perspectives, we 

spoke with union leaders, attended town hall meetings, and analyzed 

results of the employee survey and focus groups held by the Human Capital 

Office. In addition, we visited the Pueblo, Colorado, Document Distribution 

Center to talk with frontline managers about their views of the 

transformation. 

We used the practices presented in our report Results Oriented Cultures: 

Implementation Steps to Assist Mergers and Organizational 

Transformations, GAO-03-669, to guide our analysis of the actions taken by 

GPO to transform. We developed the recommended next steps by referring 

to our other models, guides, reports, and products on transforming 

organizations, strategic human capital management, and best practices for 

information technology and financial management, and by identifying 

additional practices that were associated with and would further 

complement or support current GPO efforts. 

We performed our work from March 2003 through June 2004. During this 

time we worked cooperatively with GPO leaders, meeting regularly with 

them about the progress of their transformation initiatives and providing 

them with information that they plan to use to develop GPO’s strategic plan 

and strengthen management. Because of this collaborative, cooperative 

approach, we determined that our work in response to the mandate could 

not be considered an audit subject to generally accepted government 

auditing standards. However, in our approach to the work, we followed 

appropriate quality control procedures consistent with the generally 

accepted standards. For the general management review examining GPO’s 

transformational efforts, we did follow generally accepted government 

auditing standards.
Page 69 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Appendix II

Comments from the Government Printing 

Office ApendxiI
Appendix II

Comments from the Government Printing 

Office

Page 70 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation
Page 71 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Appendix III

Executive Agency Satisfaction with GPO 

Services ApendxiI

Agencies responding to our surveys were generally satisfied with the 

Government Printing Office (GPO) and its services. Many agencies rated 

certain services favorably: 

• 18 of 19 that use electronic publishing services rated these as average or 

above,

• 16 of 17 that use large-format printing services rated these as average or 

above, and

• 16 of 17 that use services to convert products to electronic format rated 

these as average or above.

However, a few of the responding agencies suggested areas in which GPO 

could improve, as the following examples illustrate:

• 7 of 23 that use financial management services (such as billings, 

payments, and automated transfers) rated these as below average or 

poor;

• 3 of 10 that use Web page design/development rated it as below average 

or poor; and

• 5 of 24 that use the Federal Depository Library Program rated it as 

below average or poor.

Table 5 (repeated from the body of the report) summarizes (1) agency 

users’ levels of satisfaction with GPO’s services and (2) products and 

services that they do not use.
Appendix III

Executive Agency Satisfaction with GPO 

Services

Page 72 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Table 5: Satisfaction with Products and Services

Source: GAO analysis of agency-reported data.

a

Not all agencies answered every question.

b

Preflighting is checking printed or electronic copy before printed copies are made. 

c

Press sheet inspection is a review of printed sheets before printed copies are made.

As the table shows, in responding to questions on customer satisfaction, 

some agencies indicated that they did not use certain electronic services:

• 18 of 28 do not use Web hosting and Web page design/development 

services,

• 11 of 28 do not use services to convert products to electronic format, 

and

GPO product/service

Agency satisfaction with GPO products/services

Excellent

Above 

average Average

Below 

average Poor

Don’t 

use Totala

Archiving/storage 1 4 6 0 2 15 28

Binding 4 9 4 0 2 9 28

CD-ROM development and production 3 4 9 1 2 9 28

Converting products to electronic format 3 6 7 0 1 11 28

Custom finishing 4 6 4 0 2 12 28

Duplication/print on demand 5 5 6 1 2 9 28

Electronic publishing 4 7 7 0 1 9 28

Federal Depository Library Program 9 6 4 3 2 3 27

Financial management services 2 4 10 3 4 5 28

GPO sales program 5 4 10 2 1 5 27

Institute for Federal Printing and Electronic Publishing 11 7 5 0 1 4 28

Large format printing 4 3 9 0 1 10 27

Production Inventory Control System 2 4 11 1 1 9 28

Preflighting b 2 8 6 0 2 10 28

Press sheet inspection c 8 9 5 0 2 4 28

Printing (in-house) 7 7 5 2 2 5 28

Product dissemination 4 7 6 1 2 7 27

Reimbursable storage/distribution 1 2 4 0 2 19 28

Typography/design 3 9 4 1 2 9 28

Web hosting 1 2 5 1 1 18 28

Web page design/development 1 2 4 1 2 18 28
Appendix III

Executive Agency Satisfaction with GPO 

Services

Page 73 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

• 9 of 28 do not use electronic publishing services.

Some responding agencies identified other services that they did not use:

• 19 of 28 do not use reimbursable storage and distribution services,

• 15 of 28 do not use archiving and storage services,

• 12 of 28 do not use custom-finishing services,

• 10 of 27 do not use large format printing services, and

• 10 of 28 do not use preflighting services.

In addition, we asked agencies about specific GPO services, which are 

reported in the sections that follow.

Level of Satisfaction 

with GPO Term 

Contracts

Most of the responding agencies’ print officers were generally satisfied 

with GPO’s Print Procurement Term Contracts organization—the group 

that awards and manages long-term multiple print contracts. All print 

officers responding to our survey rated this organization as average or 

above in the following areas:

• accessibility by phone,

• cost of products and services, and

• knowledge of products and services.

Among the few less-than-average ratings were

• presentation of new products and services—4 of 20 rated GPO’s 

performance below average,

• timeliness—3 of 23 rated GPO’s performance below average, and

• responsiveness to customer needs—2 of 24 rated GPO’s performance 

below average.

Table 6 shows the specific responses.
Appendix III

Executive Agency Satisfaction with GPO 

Services

Page 74 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Table 6: Agency Print Officers’ Ratings of GPO Term Contracts

Source: GAO analysis of agency-reported data.

a

Not all agencies answered every question.

Level of Satisfaction 

with GPO Procurement 

Purchasing

Most of the responding agencies’ print officers also were generally satisfied 

with GPO’s Print Procurement Purchasing organization—the organization 

that manages one-time print procurements. Among the areas in which the 

organization was highly rated were

• ability to solve problems—all ratings were average or above,

• accessibility by phone—all ratings were average or above, and

• communication skills—all ratings were average or above.

Among the few less than average ratings were

• presentation of new products and services—4 of 16 rated this below 

average,

• responsiveness to customer needs—2 of 19 rated this below average, 

and

• timeliness—1 of 19 rated this below average.

Feature

Agency ratings of GPO term contracts

Excellent

Above 

average Average

Below 

average Poor

No basis 

to judge Totala

Ability to solve problems 7 10 6 1 0 0 24

Accessibility by phone 4 10 10 0 0 0 24

Accuracy of information 6 11 5 1 0 0 23

Communication skills 5 10 8 1 0 0 24

Cost of products and services 6 7 10 0 0 0 23

Courtesy 7 9 7 1 0 0 24

Presentation of new products and services 1 6 9 4 0 3 23

Product and/or services knowledge 4 11 9 0 0 0 24

Professionalism 6 10 7 1 0 0 24

Responsiveness to customer needs 7 7 8 2 0 0 24

Timeliness 6 6 8 3 0 0 23
Appendix III

Executive Agency Satisfaction with GPO 

Services

Page 75 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Table 7 shows the specific responses.

Table 7: Agency Print Officers’ Ratings of GPO Procurement Purchasing

Source: GAO analysis of agency-reported data.

Level of Satisfaction 

with GPO Regional 

Print Procurement

Most of the responding agencies’ print officers were satisfied with GPO’s 

regional print procurement organizations, which manage print contracting 

for agency organizations outside of Washington, D.C. Among the areas in 

which these organizations were favorably rated were

• ability to solve problems—all ratings were average or above,

• accessibility by phone—all ratings were average or above, and

• accuracy of information—all ratings were average or above.

Among the few less-than-average ratings were

• presentation of new products and services—2 of 15 rated this below 

average, and

• product and services knowledge—1 of 21 rated this below average.

Feature

Agency ratings of GPO procurement purchasing

Excellent

Above 

average Average

Below 

average Poor

No basis 

to judge Total

Ability to solve problems 5 6 8 0 0 0 19

Accessibility by phone 4 9 6 0 0 0 19

Accuracy of information 4 10 5 0 0 0 19

Communication skills 3 9 7 0 0 0 19

Cost of products and services 5 7 7 0 0 0 19

Courtesy 4 10 5 0 0 0 19

Presentation of new products and services 1 4 7 4 0 3 19

Product and/or service knowledge 4 8 6 1 0 0 19

Professionalism 5 6 8 0 0 0 19

Responsiveness to customer needs 5 6 6 2 0 0 19

Timeliness 5 5 8 1 0 0 19
Appendix III

Executive Agency Satisfaction with GPO 

Services

Page 76 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Table 8 shows the specific responses.

Table 8: Agency Print Officers’ Ratings of GPO Regional Procurement

Source: GAO analysis of agency-reported data.

a

Not all agencies answered every question.

Level of Satisfaction 

with GPO Information 

Dissemination

Most of the responding agencies’ print officers were generally satisfied 

with GPO’s information dissemination. Among the areas in which this 

function was favorably rated were

• courtesy—all rated average or above,

• product and/or service knowledge—all rated average or above, and

• professionalism—all rated average or above.

Among the few less than average ratings were

• presentation of new products and services—3 of 13 rated this below 

average, and

• accessibility by phone—3 of 22 rated this poor.

Feature

Agency ratings of GPO regional procurement

Excellent

Above 

average Average

Below 

average Poor

No basis 

to judge Total a

Ability to solve problems 6 12 4 0 0 0 22

Accessibility by phone 7 8 7 0 0 0 22

Accuracy of information 7 11 3 0 0 0 21

Communication skills 3 13 6 0 0 0 22

Costs of products and services 5 10 7 0 0 0 22

Courtesy 7 11 4 0 0 0 22

Presentation of new products and services 1 5 7 2 0 6 21

Product and/or service knowledge 4 10 6 1 0 0 21

Professionalism 7 10 5 0 0 0 22

Responsiveness to customer needs 8 10 4 0 0 0 22

Timeliness 8 8 6 0 0 0 22
Appendix III

Executive Agency Satisfaction with GPO 

Services

Page 77 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Table 9 shows the specific responses.

Table 9: Agency Print Officers’ Ratings of GPO Information Dissemination

Source: GAO analysis of agency-reported data.

a

Not all agencies answered every question.

Level of Satisfaction 

with GPO Customer 

Services

Most responding agencies were generally satisfied with the Customer 

Services program. Among the areas rated as average or above were

• ability to solve problems,

• accessibility by phone,

• accuracy of information,

• courtesy, and

• professionalism.

Among the few less than average ratings were

• presentation of new products and services—9 of 25 rated below average 

or poor,

Feature

Agency ratings of GPO information dissemination

Excellent

Above 

average Average

Below 

average Poor

No basis 

to judge Total a

Ability to solve problems 6 4 10 1 0 1 22

Accessibility by phone 4 4 11 0 3 0 22

Accuracy of information 6 6 8 1 1 1 23

Communication skills 6 3 13 1 0 0 23

Costs of products and services 2 4 10 1 1 4 22

Courtesy 6 5 11 0 0 0 22

Presentation of new products and services 0 4 6 3 0 9 22

Product and/or service knowledge 4 5 10 0 0 3 22

Professionalism 6 3 12 0 0 0 21

Responsiveness to customer needs 6 3 11 0 2 0 22

Timeliness 6 3 11 0 2 0 22
Appendix III

Executive Agency Satisfaction with GPO 

Services

Page 78 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

• cost of products and services—4 of 26 rated below average or poor, and

• timeliness and responsiveness to customer needs—2 of 28 rated below 

average.

Table 10 shows the specific responses.

Table 10: Agency Ratings of GPO Customer Services

Source: GAO analysis of agency-reported data.

Most of the responding agencies were generally satisfied with their most 

recent experience with this program. Specifically,

• 27 of 29 were able to reach a customer service representative, and

• 27 of 29 felt that the customer service representatives were helpful.

Among the few less than positive ratings were

• 7 of 29 strongly agreed or agreed that additional contact was required to 

resolve the matter,

• 3 of 28 disagreed that their complaint was resolved in a timely manner,

• 3 of 29 disagreed that their question was answered in a timely manner.

Feature

Agency ratings of GPO customer services

Excellent

Above 

average Average

Below 

average Poor

No basis to 

judge Total

Ability to solve problems 8 10 10 0 0 0 28

Accessibility by phone 8 11 9 0 0 0 28

Accuracy of information 9 10 9 0 0 0 28

Communication skills 10 4 13 1 0 0 28

Cost of products and services 6 7 9 3 1 2 28

Courtesy 14 7 7 0 0 0 28

Presentation of new products and services 4 2 10 8 1 3 28

Product and/or service knowledge 5 9 12 1 0 1 28

Professionalism 12 8 8 0 0 0 28

Responsiveness to customer needs 9 7 10 2 0 0 28

Timeliness 8 9 9 2 0 0 28
Appendix III

Executive Agency Satisfaction with GPO 

Services

Page 79 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Table 11 shows the specific responses.

Table 11: Agency Ratings of Most Recent Experience with GPO Customer Services

Source: GAO analysis of agency-reported data.

Feature

Agency rating of most recent contact with GPO customer services

Strongly 

agree Agree

Neither agree 

nor disagree Disagree

Strongly 

disagree

No basis 

to judge Total

Able to directly reach a GPO customer 

representative

13 14 1 1 0 0 29

Question answered in reasonable time period 12 14 0 3 0 0 29

Customer rep did not know how to handle 

problem

0 2 2 19 6 0 29

Complaint resolved in timely fashion 5 18 2 1 2 1 29

Needed additional contact to resolve matter 2 5 5 14 3 0 29

Customer rep was willing to help 14 13 1 1 0 0 29
Page 80 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Appendix IV

Panel of Experts ApendxiIV

Prudence S. Adler

Associate Executive Director

Federal Relations and Information Policy

Association of Research Libraries

Jamie Callan

Associate Professor

School of Computer Science

Carnegie Mellon University

Bonnie C. Carroll

President and Founder

Information International Associates, Inc.

Gary Cosimini

Business Development Director

Creative Pro Product Group

Adobe Systems Incorporated

John S. Erickson

Principal Scientist

Digital Media Systems Lab

Hewlett-Packard Laboratories

Michael Jensen

Director of Web Communications

National Academies Press

P. K. Kannan

Associate Professor

Robert H. Smith School of Business

University of Maryland

Nick Kemp

Senior Vice President of Operations

Nature Publishing Group

William C. Lamparter

President and Principal

PrintCom Consulting Group
Appendix IV

Panel of Experts

Page 81 GAO-04-830 GPO Transformation

Craig Nevill-Manning

Senior Staff Research Scientist

Google Inc.

Barbara Kline Pope

Executive Director

National Academies Press

MacKenzie Smith 

Associate Director for Technology

MIT Library

(450295)
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