Fiscal cost of task-based IT contracting

Jan 16, 2025

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In response to a request by the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, this report estimates the fiscal cost of task-based IT contracting in 2022-23.

Although the prorogation of Parliament on January 6, 2025, ends the session and all parliamentary business, the majority of the work required for this report was completed at the time of prorogation. Therefore, this report is presented in accordance with the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s mandate to promote budget transparency and accountability.

Highlights

The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) estimated the fiscal cost of task-based IT contractors who worked over 200 days in 2022-23 across the five departments with the highest spending on informatics services in that fiscal year.

PBO notes that, in at least some federal departments and agencies, data related to external contracts is not held within a centralized database and not readily available. This resulted in delays and limited the scope of our analysis to four departments.

PBO found that the cost of external contractors was between 22.0 per cent and 25.7 per cent higher than their public sector equivalents for the four departments analyzed.

With the data that was provided, PBO is unable to determine the underlying reason for these premiums and whether these premiums were justified.