DOGE audit is out: watchdog says savings claims were inflated

The U.S. Government Accountability Office released an audit today on the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and its conclusion was blunt: the federal cost-cutting push overstated how much money it saved.

DOGE started out with a $2 trillion goal. Later, it put a $215 billion figure on its public “Wall of Receipts.” But when the Government Accountability Office reviewed about $110 billion of those claimed savings, it found that a large share of them couldn’t be verified, relied on faulty math, or came from actions that were already underway before DOGE even existed.

Some of the examples are hard to brush off. The Government Accountability Office said $27.4 billion came from contracts that were never actually terminated. The audit also found that nearly 2,000 of the 13,476 contracts DOGE claimed it had ended were still active. One Defense Health Agency IT contract, tied to $1.7 billion in claimed savings, was never terminated or modified at all, according to the audit. The Government Accountability Office also said 96% of the reported grant savings couldn’t be verified, and that 108 lease cancellations had already been set in motion before DOGE was created.

The audit was requested by U.S. Senators Gary Peters and Richard Blumenthal. They said DOGE had been deceptive and reckless. Outside policy and procurement experts were just as skeptical, describing it as startup-style behavior dropped into a system built around contracting rules, legal requirements, and long government timelines. Some said it looked less like real budget cutting and more like performance art.

If you followed DOGE through the viral claims and flashy receipt pages, this Government Accountability Office report changes the picture. You can read the audit on the Government Accountability Office website.