Inspection of the Government Publishing Office’s (GPO) Acquisition Services Contracting Procedures for Supplies and Services and their Effectiveness in Preventing Late Penalty Fees

We inspected the U.S. Government Publishing Office’s (GPO) Acquisition Services with the intent of answering the following question: Are GPO’s procedures for procuring supplies and services contracts effective in preventing late penalty fees? Our report contains six recommendations designed to improve GPO’s contracting processes. The recommendations focus on statute compliance by providing the OIG with requested documentation; updating policies; improving timeliness by training Acquisition Services personnel the (cradle-to-grave) payment process; ensuring that Acquisition Services personnel are current in their contracting certifications; implementing a tracking system to document certifications and required continuous learning points (CLPs); and improving penalty tracking and reporting.