2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THREE - Executive (§§ 1 — 9311) › Chapter 38 - General Services Administration (§§ 931 — 934d) › Subchapter III - Functions and Programs of the Administration (§§ 933 — 933m) › § 933b - Printing and copying center program

(1) The Administration shall assist, provide or authorize other ways of providing printing services to the agencies, departments or instrumentalities of the Executive Branch that request them, with the exception of those that by law are expressly authorized to obtain such service without the intervention of the Administration. The Administration may assist every applicant municipality, public corporation, agency, department, instrumentality or government body, in the obtainment of printing services even though they are not legally bound to obtain said services through the intervention of the Administration.
(2) In order to provide the printing services, the Administration shall be in charge of and shall administer its own printing shop which shall be known as the “Government Printing Office” and when deemed necessary in the corresponding cases, at the request of the interested petitioner, it shall authorize the creation and administration of printing services and reproduction centers, through photographic and electronic methods, or of any other type, by the agencies, departments and instrumentalities of the three Government Branches, with the exception of the Printing Office of the Lottery of Puerto Rico.
It shall likewise provide a directory of the printing shops available in the different agencies or dependencies, including public corporations that operate their own printing shops, which are hereby authorized and empowered to offer quotes for printing services for other agencies or dependencies of the Commonwealth Government and the municipalities, including the Administration itself, according to their capacity. Any agency or dependency that does not have its printing shop or whose printing shop does not have the capacity to produce the required work, shall preferably request quotes and proposals from the Administration and the printing offices of the other agencies or dependencies in the directory to be prepared by the Administration. The agencies and dependencies of the Government, including public corporations and the Administration itself, are hereby authorized to enter into consortiums to create and develop printing shops, jointly or shared, to coordinate and distribute functions among themselves and to specialize their respective printing shops in order to optimize the division of work among the respective printing shops.
The Administrator shall regulate the creation, use, suppression, consolidation and transfer of said copying centers and printing shops. He/she shall participate in the design of any regulations to establish the printing services to be provided to the Government Branches by the Administration or in coordination with other agencies, and shall be responsible for said regulations in the absence of legislation to provide otherwise in specific cases. The regulations approved by the Administrator shall also include provisions to establish reasonable limits to enable specific agencies, departments and instrumentalities of the Executive Branch that are not specifically exempted from the provisions of this chapter to produce on their own copying equipment the quantities of prints and publications required for their routine needs. In these cases, the decisions of the Administrator shall be notified as soon as possible, dispensing with every delaying or unnecessary procedure.
(3) In order to implement the Printing and Copying Center Program, the Administration shall be governed by the following norms, among others:
(a) Rational organizing of the petitioner’s requirements for printing services and use of available financial or other kinds of resources to achieve the maximum yield.
(b) Use and acquisition of the most modern equipment, consistent with the use to which it shall be devoted and the application of the most advanced techniques in harmony with the nature of the services to be rendered.
(c) Establishment, in coordination with the petitioners of printing services, of controls in the use of the available printing facilities and copying centers for the purpose of ensuring the highest and most efficient productivity.
(d) Rendering of printing services which hold an adequate relation with the particular needs of each petitioner.
(e) Maintenance and administration of all central printing and reproduction services, established or to be established in the future for the purpose of serving the Government in general.
(f) Coordination of the available resources among the agencies or dependencies that operate printing shops to minimize the duplication of resources and to optimize the use of existing resources.
History —July 23, 1974, No. 164, Part 1, p. 752, § 17; Aug. 4, 1979, No. 196, p. 566, § 3; Dec. 12, 2007, No. 187, § 4; Feb. 25, 2008, No. 17, § 10, eff. 120 days after Feb. 25, 2008.