It's an interesting question as to whether you can do that, whether the cost of running a bureaucracy versus the cost of hiring a private collection agency is worthwhile. It would be an interesting exercise, but sometimes you tend to think that a lot of government costs will just get buried somewhere or other, so you end up comparing apples to oranges.
Did the agency actually conduct, or have somebody conduct on its behalf, an apples-to-apples versus apples-to-oranges comparison?