We finally have more information on what the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), being run by Elon Musk and friends, was doing (or not doing) while it was laying waste to the federal government last year.
We have learned from a recent US Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that the savings figures claimed by DOGE (1) were based on an unknown methodology, (2) exaggerated savings, and (3) represented activities that never occurred.
Here is a statement from the report summary:
- DOGE was not transparent regarding methodologies used to calculate savings. Specifically, DOGE did not use its stated methodology to calculate the majority of savings associated with the contracts reported as terminated. For grants, DOGE did not provide sufficient information to verify the method used to calculate 96 percent of DOGE-reported savings. Similarly, the Wall of Receipts does not include an explanation of how the savings from terminated leases were calculated.
- The Wall of Receipts includes leases identified for termination before DOGE was established. Specifically,108 of the 264 leases identified for termination on the Wall of Receipts, about $15.3 million of the total $53.5 million in savings, were already in process for termination when DOGE was established.
- GAO’s review of selected contracts identified potential cost savings, but the basis for some reported savings is unknown. For example, DOGE reported $1.7 billion in savings on the Department of Defense’s Defense Health Agency contract for IT services at more than 700 military treatment facilities worldwide. While DOGE initially identified the contract for termination, in the end, no action was taken to terminate the contract, or to reduce scope, value, or funding. Thus, no savings were achieved.
This should come as no surprise to those closely watching the destruction last year. It was clear from the start that DOGE was not interested in the mission of government. Instead, the whole operation was mindless foolishness intended to scare away those employees who could not be illegally fired or suspended. NASA was one of the victims of the insanity, and it will take a least a generation for the agency to recover.
The whole DOGE operation was basically Twitter, Part 2. But this time it was not his own company that Musk was destroying but instead your government. It could have been done with some thought and input from the auditors who oversee government everyday, but that would require hard work, real numbers, and boring processes.
The country needed a competent surgeon, and instead it got a cocky plumber.
Any country that hands over its space industry to such a man should be having second thoughts, or at least have a Plan B.
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