Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) plans to consolidate the Army's, Air Force's, and the Defense Logistics Agency's (DLA) printing and duplicating functions into the Navy Publishing and Printing Service (NPPS).
GAO found that: (1) the Navy estimated that NPPS consolidation will save about $41 million for the 338 activities included in its preliminary report; (2) since specific information regarding NPPS study results was not available, savings estimates were largely dependent on a number of cost-reduction and cost-structure assumptions; (3) consolidation implementation decisions will be made after October 1, 1991, when NPPS becomes the central DOD manager for printing and duplicating services; (4) a $20-million increase to the NPPS Capital Purchases Program is anticipated in fiscal year (FY) 1992 for new equipment purchases; (5) the proposed consolidation could affect the amount of printing procured through the Government Printing Office (GPO), since NPPS would make decisions on whether to print work in-house or contract through GPO; and (6) commercially procurable work could be more expensive under the consolidation, since DOD components would be required to send their commercial printing requirements through NPPS to GPO, rather than directly to GPO.
