The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an initiative launched by Elon Musk to reduce federal spending, vastly inflated and provided unreliable figures for its claimed $110 billion in taxpayer savings. A review of DOGE's efforts revealed that the initiative could not provide sufficient information to verify 96% of its reported savings, particularly those from canceled grants.
The report further indicated that DOGE did not adhere to its own stated methodology for calculating approximately half of the savings it reported, despite pledging transparency. The GAO noted that DOGE officials did not respond to requests for information, preventing the agency from determining why data quality issues were not disclosed.
Further discrepancies were found in DOGE's termination of contracts. The GAO report stated that $27.4 billion in claimed savings were never executed, and an additional $7.2 billion lacked identifying information for verification. In one instance, DOGE claimed $1.7 billion in savings from an IT services contract for the Defense Department's Defense Health Agency, but the report found no modifications were made to the contract. The initiative also claimed savings from leases that had already been slated for termination, and from millions of dollars in such agreements.
DOGE formally concluded its operations on July 4, but its "Wall of Receipts" website continues to list total claimed taxpayer savings at $215 billion. Elon Musk has since departed from DOGE, and neither he nor the White House immediately responded to requests for comment.