When Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency began its campaign last year to cut federal spending, it promoted a public website meant to track the savings it said it was delivering for taxpayers.
But a new assessment from the U.S. Government Accountability Office says the site’s headline figure — $110 billion in claimed taxpayer savings — was significantly overstated and could not be considered reliable.
According to the watchdog report, DOGE was unable to supply sufficient documentation to substantiate 96% of the savings it attributed to canceled grants.
The findings also undercut DOGE’s public commitment to transparency. GAO said the office did not follow its own stated methodology in calculating roughly half of the savings it posted online.
“Because U.S. DOGE Service officials did not respond to requests for information, GAO could not determine the reasons why DOGE did not disclose data quality issues and limitations when the website first went live or at any time since then,” the report said.
GAO further found that DOGE did not actually end some of the contracts it listed as canceled. The review said $27.4 billion in reported savings was never carried out, while DOGE failed to provide identifying details for another $7.2 billion in claimed reductions.
In one example, DOGE reported $1.7 billion in savings tied to an information technology services contract for the Defense Department’s Defense Health Agency. GAO said the contract had not been changed.
The watchdog also said DOGE took credit for millions of dollars in lease savings even though those leases had already been flagged for termination before DOGE counted them.
Musk has since left DOGE. ABC News reached out to Musk and the White House for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Although DOGE formally ended on July 4, its “Wall of Receipts” remains online, claiming a total of $215 billion in taxpayer savings.
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