While George W. Bush was president, the U.S. Coast Guard signed a $144,000 contract that was finished by 2005. Recently, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) claimed to have canceled this contract, supposedly saving taxpayers $53.7 million. However, experts criticized DOGE’s accuracy, as the contract was long expired. The group has faced scrutiny for multiple erroneous claims regarding savings, raising doubts about their competence. Although DOGE has made some cuts, the lack of accurate data tracking has led to inflated savings figures. Mismanagement and reliance on potentially misleading information from federal agencies compound the issue.
During George W. Bush’s presidency, the U.S. Coast Guard entered into a contract with a Northern Virginia company for administrative support, costing $144,000, which was fulfilled by June 30, 2005.
Two decades passed, with various presidents in office.
Recently, Elon Musk’s restructuring team, known as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), announced the cancellation of this outdated Coast Guard contract, claiming to have saved taxpayers $53.7 million.
This assertion, showcased on the team’s “wall of receipts,” left federal contracting experts puzzled. Even after Mr. Musk’s team retracted several large incorrect claims from its website last week, The New York Times discovered new inaccuracies—assertions regarding “canceled” contracts that had already been concluded under past presidential administrations.
“These are not savings,” stated Lisa Shea Mundt, of The Pulse of GovCon, which monitors federal spending. “The money has already been spent. Simple as that.”
Despite these errors, it does not imply that DOGE hasn’t implemented federal budget reductions. It has significantly by enforcing large-scale layoffs and the termination of active contracts, as well as contributing to the decline of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
However, the persistent inaccuracies have prompted doubts about the reliability and accuracy of the information disseminated by the Musk team, raising concerns about potential misinformation from other departments. The mistakes also put into question the team’s competence—whether they possess an adequate understanding of government operations to enact cuts without causing significant issues.
“It’s evident they don’t grasp the situation,” remarked Eric Franklin, CEO of Erimax, which advises the government on contracting practices. His firm was cited among the inaccuracies on DOGE’s “wall of receipts,” where it claimed to have saved $14 million by canceling a contract that had actually concluded in 2021.
“It’s really similar to a bull in a china shop,” said Mr. Franklin. “What you end up with is just chaos.”
A senior official from the White House provided a partial rationale, explaining that the information on the receipts wall came from various federal agencies—many of which have integrated staff from Mr. Musk’s team. This official, who spoke anonymously due to the lack of authorization to disclose DOGE’s operational methods, mentioned that Mr. Musk’s team verified the agencies’ claims for accuracy.
Why were there still so many inaccuracies? The official indicated that individual agencies should be held accountable for that. DOGE’s website states it is attempting to enhance its data accuracy, inviting users to report possible mistakes.
Missing Identifiers
Agencies are experiencing significant pressure to identify budget cuts for Mr. Musk’s group to announce. The group even introduced a “leaderboard” to rank which agencies have implemented the most reductions.
However, examination of federal contract databases reveals the chaotic nature of this effort, hinting that it is not being properly managed or adequately monitored.
Previously, the government assigned specific codes to monitor large groups of contracts across various agencies tied to shared initiatives, such as the federal response to the Covid-19 pandemic, facilitating the discovery of all associated contracts.
Yet, the contracts listed on the “wall of receipts” lack such identifiers. This absence could lead to errors in both directions—not only concerning expired contracts that do not actually yield savings but also with contracts potentially canceled by the team that aren’t being accounted for.
Mr. Musk’s team has proclaimed it has saved taxpayers $65 billion by reducing contracts, leases, federal employees, and other budget components. However, it has only detailed two of these categories: contract and lease cancellations. When aggregating DOGE’s reported savings per item, those categories only total around $10 billion, constituting less than one-sixth of the overall total.
Initially, when DOGE released its list of canceled contracts, it included about 1,100 examples.
The five largest claims were incorrect.
In one instance, DOGE inaccurately listed a contract expected to be worth $8 million as $8 billion. In another, the same $655 million contract was mistakenly counted three times. In a further case, it wrongly asserted that a major contract at the Social Security Administration had been entirely canceled, saving $232 million; in reality, only a minor project within that contract had been terminated. The actual savings amounted to $560,000.
By last week, all of these incorrect claims were removed. DOGE revised the total savings from these five cuts from $10 billion down to approximately $19 million.
Simultaneously, Mr. Musk’s team added around 1,100 new canceled contracts to the list.
Errant Links
Among the newly added entries were several that had concluded prior to President Trump’s administration.
Mr. Musk’s team took credit for terminating a $1.9 billion contract with the Treasury Department for information technology services at the Internal Revenue Service, although it had indeed been canceled in November during President Biden’s term.
The Treasury Department proposed this cancellation to DOGE in a post on X dated Feb. 19. Two days later, The Times reported that it had been terminated before Mr. Trump took office.
Three days later, DOGE added the Biden-era cancellation to its wall. The Treasury Department did not respond to inquiries regarding the contract.
Additionally, DOGE claimed credit for the cancellation of two distinct Coast Guard contracts that had both ended during George W. Bush’s presidency. Besides the $53 million contract that concluded in 2005, Mr. Musk’s team claimed to have saved another $53 million by canceling yet another agreement with the same vendor, while public contract records indicate one contract ended in 2006.
Deniece Peterson, a senior director of federal market analysis at Deltek, noted that both contracts were part of a broader spending agreement with a limit of $53 million. Overall, she stated that the Coast Guard paid approximately $35 million over several years to the vendor. All work under that agreement was completed by 2011, with no outstanding bills recorded and no additional funding expected.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, did not clarify why the department claimed $106 million in savings from terminating these two long-expired contracts. Instead, she replied to The Times’ inquiries with an email indicating: “We’re definitely enthusiastic about over $100 million in taxpayer savings.”
Moreover, there were discrepancies on the DOGE website where links directed to different contracts than those highlighted.
DOGE asserted it saved $149 million by canceling a contract for three administrative assistants at the National Institutes of Health, which was worth roughly $1.4 million.
However, the link led to an unrelated contract with another firm that supplies refrigerated gases utilized in laboratories. This other contract, which is not marked as canceled, was valued at only $118,000.
After inquiries were made regarding the inaccuracies, an official from the Department of Health and Human Services stated that DOGE is actively working to amend the website.
Emily Badger contributing reporting.