Washington — The Division of Authorities Effectivity’s notorious “Wall of Receipts” itemizing billions of {dollars} DOGE stated it saved was riddled with inaccuracies and unsubstantiated claims, a congressional watchdog discovered.
A Authorities Accountability Workplace report launched Thursday confirmed earlier reporting from CBS Information and different information shops that discovered the DOGE group’s updating “Wall of Receipts” overstated how a lot it was saving taxpayers by billions of {dollars}. As of July 7, 2026, GAO discovered that $110 billion in financial savings DOGE claimed from slashing federal contracts, leases and grants displayed financial savings estimates that had been incorrect or lacked supporting proof.
As an illustration, GAO discovered that 108 of the 264 leases DOGE stated it terminated had been already within the technique of being eradicated earlier than DOGE was established by President Trump in January 2025.
In one other case, GAO stated DOGE reported it saved $1.7 billion by figuring out a Pentagon Protection Well being Company IT contract to terminate, nevertheless it by no means adopted by means of on both terminating or slashing the funding. The GAO probe, requested by Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Gary Peters, coated contracts, grants and leases DOGE listed from Jan. 20, 2025, by means of July 7, 2026.
DOGE was launched by Elon Musk quickly after President Trump took workplace, and he oversaw and closely influenced DOGE in its early months. In late Could, he left authorities to return to his corporations. Most of the itemized so-called financial savings had been posted to DOGE’s account on Musk’s social media platform X, which has 4.7 million followers.
“Everybody helps rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse within the federal authorities, however DOGE was a slapdash and misleading effort that misled the American folks whereas doing actual harm to the federal government’s means to serve them,” Peters stated in a press release Thursday. “Elon Musk and the Trump administration claimed billions of {dollars} in financial savings it couldn’t substantiate, took credit score for work already underway, and refused to indicate its work, all whereas placing Individuals’ delicate knowledge in danger and hollowing out important businesses.”
The congressional watchdog famous that info just like the Wall of Receipts “can have vital worth,” however went on to say that it might be extra helpful to policymakers and the general public if DOGE supplied extra details about the way it calculated financial savings and disclosed knowledge limitations.
GAO criticized DOGE for lack of transparency and its failure to make use of its personal acknowledged methodology in calculations of the “majority of financial savings related to the contracts reported as terminated.”
“For grants, DOGE didn’t present adequate info to confirm the tactic used to calculate 96 % of DOGE-reported financial savings,” GAO stated.
“Whereas the Wall of Receipts consists of some details about the information and sources underlying reported financial savings, it doesn’t sufficiently disclose limitations affecting knowledge high quality,” GAO stated. It really helpful DOGE “prominently” show knowledge high quality points and limitations on the Wall of Receipts.
CBS Information beforehand recognized different points with DOGE’s reporting, as nicely. DOGE stopped publishing particulars of canceled U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement contracts as a result of what was described as “authorized causes.”
And a CBS Information evaluation of three of the most important cuts DOGE claimed by August 2025 indicated the financial savings from these contracts had been lower than 3% of what DOGE stated they had been.
DOGE concluded its operations on July 4, though the Trump administration has lengthy stated company heads would work to save lots of taxpayers cash.
GAO stated DOGE “didn’t reply to GAO’s request for info or interviews.”
