Section 29. Any agency of the commonwealth which receives an appropriation of state funds shall not make any expenditure for any document printed, mimeographed or prepared in any other way, whether for outside or interdepartmental circulation, unless publication of such document shall have been approved by the state purchasing agent, and the state purchasing agent is hereby authorized and directed to require such agencies to summarize and consolidate such documents when feasible. Each such document authorized to be printed which is four pages or more in length shall state on its face the estimated cost per copy, including the cost of paper, printing and binding.

Every original manuscript of annual reports of state agencies, whether printed in full or in summarized or consolidated form or not printed, shall be filed with the state secretary. Except as otherwise provided by law, agencies selling documents shall do so at not less than the stated estimated cost; provided, however, that such agencies may dispose of excess copies of documents no longer current as provided by rules and regulations of the secretary. This section shall not apply to publications issued by the officers of either branch of the general court, or issued under special authority given by the general court, or to the regular annual reports of the attorney general, state treasurer, state auditor or state secretary, or to reports of capital trials prepared by the attorney general under section eleven of chapter twelve, or to publications prepared by the state secretary in conformity with sections two and four of chapter five.