Printing office to stay if it can show profits - DBM

The Department of Budget Management (DBM) said there is no need to abolish the 102-year old National Printing Office (NPO) but only if it can turn around and make its operations profitable instead of draining public funds.

DBM Secretary Emilia Boncodin told reporters that it would be easy for the NPO to turn its operations around if it is willing to streamline its operations and benchmark its performance alongside private companies engaged in the same business.

The proposed abolition of the NPO has generated a political uproar, beginning with the appeal of the Office of the Press Secretary for the DBM not to dissolve the agency which has been in charge of various government publications including campaign materials such as official ballots for elections.

The NPO is among 14 agencies that have been marked for integration, merger or abolition by the DBM as the Arroyo administration struggles with its exploding budget deficit.

Boncodin expressed shock that the issue generated as much political backlash as it did, saying that the DBM’s only motivation was to shed unnecessary agencies whose functions are being duplicated by other agencies or are generating more losses than benefits.

"I don’t think there is any quarrel about making the government more efficient," Boncodin said. "Although government agencies are strictly not profit-oriented, those agencies that are engaged in business-like enterprise are measured differently."

According to Boncodin, government cannot afford to maintain and continue subsidizing government-owned and controlled enterprises engaged in business. "In government, we have to teach ourselves more discipline in terms of bottom line if we are engaged in business-like enterprises."

Boncodin said such agencies like the NPO should be gauged against similarly-engaged printing businesses since they do the same thing.

"NPO is losing. Its revenue is not enough to cover its expenses," Boncodin said. "We can’t afford it anymore."

Boncodin said the DBM does not mind if the NPO will continue to exist as long as the agency improves its operations and shapes up. But she said there is no dispute that government streamlining is critical especially since the budget deficit is expected to hit P183 billion this year and possibly P160 billion next year.

Congress has given the NPO a reprieve this year, approving a budget appropriation for its continued operation in 2003. – Des Ferriols