The Government Accountability Office has determined that a significant portion of the savings claimed by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are inaccurate or lack any documentary evidence, raising serious questions about the entity's operational value to the American taxpayer.

Phantom Savings and Prior Actions

In a direct rebuke to the temporary advisory body, the GAO investigation revealed that 108 of 264 lease terminations posted on DOGE's public 'Wall of Receipts' were already in the pipeline before the department was established. The most glaring discrepancy involves a Department of Defense IT services contract. DOGE publicly claimed $1.7 billion in savings from terminating the deal, but auditors found that no action was ever taken to cancel the contract, meaning the reported windfall for domestic coffers was completely fabricated.

Opaque Methods and a Hostile Dependency

The report further criticizes the total lack of transparency in how calculations were made. DOGE officials refused to respond to GAO requests for information regarding their methodologies, preventing any verification of the broader $110 billion in savings reported before the initiative’s July 4 sunset. This opacity follows an executive order that placed billionaire Elon Musk, a major federal contractor through his corporate interests, at its helm. The GAO noted that when government data is unreliable, it damages public trust and hobbles policymakers who require hard numbers to legislate effectively.

“In addition, when government data are not reliable, it can hinder the public’s trust in government,” the GAO report stated.

The findings validate criticisms that DOGE served as a public relations operation rather than a serious audit. Democratic Senators Gary Peters and Richard Blumenthal, who requested the report, described the effort as slapdash and deceptive. For the American worker, the inability to distinguish real government waste from a corporate-led publicity stunt means critical resources remain undiverted from the foreign entanglements and globalist corporate welfare schemes that DOGE was ostensibly created to dismantle.