I'm convinced personally that I could go down to one of our local printers and establish a relationship and end up having my stuff printed at lower expense than what I end up with by going through the GPO process. This manager says the quality of GPO's work usually is acceptable, but not always. Once, for example, he got a report back with a footprint stamped on one page. GPO officials say that given the volume of work the agency prints or has printed under contract, some problems are unavoidable. But they defend the quality of the work overall and note that GPO has a quality assurance system based on standards set for each job.
Agencies sometimes expect a higher level of work than they choose to pay for, they say.
We get blamed for deficiencies that contractors may perform. But if the contractor meets the specification, you can't reject it. Sometimes an agency will accept a product because it needs it at a particular time even if it doesn't meet the specification. To turn around later and use it in an anecdotal way seems to me unfair. Jim Bradley, GPO's director of customer service, says the agency often serves as a convenient scapegoat and the process of procuring printing services isn't as simple as it sounds.