State of Washington's In-plant Audit Raises Eyebrows
After a proposal to close the State of Washington's in-plant died in the state Senate earlier this year, the state auditor's office decided to do a full performance audit of the Department of Printing, along with auditing 25 agencies for their office printing and in-plants. The way the auditor's office has gone about this, however, has raised eyebrows in the printing community.
The state only allowed contractors on its approved vendor list to bid on the audit. The problem is, none of the 80 vendors on this approved list knows anything about printing.
IPG was contacted by one of these vendors, who asked for recommendations of print consultants with whom they could partner. A more logical (and cost effective) way for the state to handle this would have been to go directly to the print consultants, but the state auditor was adamant about sticking to the state's policy of using only its approved vendor list, to save time.
Incidentally, time is another variable that has drawn stunned responses from the print community. The state reportedly wants the winning bidder to complete the audits of the Department of Printing and the 25 agencies in just two months. (Some print consultants have told IPG that they usually take two months to thoroughly audit just one in-plant.) Speed over quality appears to be the direction the state auditor is headed.
In the end, the state hopes to present the final report to the state legislature in January 2011, which will use it to change state law governing how Washington handles its printing.