An audit by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) called into question the savings figures released by DOGE, the organization promoted by Elon Musk to reduce US government spending. According to the report, a significant part of the announced cuts could not be verified or corresponded to processes initiated before the creation of the group.
Audit questions thousands of contracts and cuts
The GAO reviewed about $110 billion in alleged savings related to contracts, grants and leases. Among its main findings is that more than $35 billion could not be corroborated or were linked to operations that were not canceled as DOGE claimed.
The organization also detected that 108 of the 264 leases published in the so-called “Wall of Receipts” were already in the process of cancellation before DOGE began operations, so they could not be attributed as an achievement of the group.
Additionally, the audit revealed that DOGE claimed to have terminated 13,476 contracts, but nearly 2,000 were still active at the time of the review.
“We found that DOGE did not accurately report actions taken in connection with the contracts,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO) noted in its report.
Democrats demand greater accountability
The investigation was requested by Democratic Senators Gary Peters and Richard Blumenthal, who sought to clarify the true financial impact of DOGE-powered stocks.
Peters sharply criticized the group's handling of information.
“Elon Musk and the Trump administration claimed to have saved billions of dollars without being able to justify it and took credit for work that was already underway,” the senator stated.
According to the audit, GAO officials attempted to obtain a response from DOGE, but the agency did not respond to requests for information. There was also no immediate comment from Elon Musk or the White House.
The report fuels doubts about the figures that DOGE released for months. Although Musk even raised the goal of reducing up to $2 trillion in federal spending, the agency's portal ended up reporting around $215 billion in savings, a figure that now faces strong questioning after the GAO's independent review.
