Government spending is inefficient, shock. This morning's preview of the findings made by Sir Philip Green in his report reveals that a fragmented approach to purchasing means the government isn't making the most of its spending power.

Naturally, print gets a mention, thus: "Sir Philip's report has focused on the procurement of goods and services such as computers, travel, print and office supplies and the management of the government's property portfolio."

This reminded me about the hoo-hah regarding the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) buying framework for print services over the past 18 months or so - a new OGC framework was supposed to kick in next year. Now, though, the OGC (along with Buying Solutions) has been subsumed into the Cabinet Office's Efficiency and Reform Group so whether that will happen or not is anyone's guess.

No doubt printers up and down the country are watching developments closely - I'm frequently on the receiving end of gripes from PrintWeek readers about the way public bodies buy print, especially when local businesses lose out.

And if Sir Philip's review results in a further aggregation of buying practices it's easy to envisage SMEs being squeezed out with more government work going the way of one of the giant print managers. Therein lies the contradiction. We want government to spend our money efficiently but we don't always like the inevitable results.