Overdue and Overdrawn: Internal Services, Administrative Debt, and the Government of Canada's Real Property File

Administrative debt is when successive waves of reform result in an accumulation of rusting-out systems that are not optimized. This occurs when the drivers for change prioritize expediency, offering quick fixes rather than a focus on long-term sustainable re-design. This is the case for the federal government's Internal Services and is illustrated through a look at the Real Property function over time. This function has been routinely discounted when priorities and budgets are set. Resulting capability deficits are exposed periodically in audits and as part of higher profile reviews revealing gaps in the maintenance of asset integrity that put public-facing program delivery at risk. We make the case that Internal Services are inseparable from how governments deliver public-facing external programs. We suggest ways to close the information gaps contributing to this overall administrative debt.