DOGE’s ‘Wall of Receipts’ still lists $215 billion in savings online. A new government review says much of it can’t be confirmed

The Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, said last year that it had saved taxpayers $110 billion. It posted this number on a website to show the public how much money it claimed to have cut from federal spending.

A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, or GAO, says that number was overstated and could not be backed up with proper evidence.

The GAO found that DOGE could not provide enough information to confirm 96% of the savings it reported from canceled grants, reports ABC News.

GAO says DOGE did not follow its own stated methods to calculate savings

According to the report, DOGE had promised to be transparent about how it calculated its savings. But the GAO found that DOGE did not use its own stated method for about half of the savings it reported.

The report also raised questions about why DOGE never explained the problems with its data. “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.

The GAO also found that DOGE did not cancel some of the contracts it had claimed to cancel. Based on the report, $27.4 billion worth of claimed savings were never actually carried out. Some of DOGE’s grant cuts have already faced legal challenges, including a court ruling on race and gender tied to how certain grant terminations were carried out.

For another $7.2 billion in claimed savings, DOGE did not provide any information that could identify what the savings were for, according to the report. One example named in the report involved a $1.7 billion IT services contract linked to the Defense Health Agency, which is part of the Defense Department.

DOGE claimed this contract was a source of savings, but the report says no changes were ever actually made to it. The GAO also said DOGE counted savings from certain leases that had already been marked for termination before DOGE became involved.

Elon Musk, who led DOGE when it launched, has since left the department. ABC News said it contacted both Musk and the White House for comment on the GAO report but did not receive a response. Since Musk’s exit, other officials have moved to set up similar government efficiency initiatives at different levels of government.

DOGE officially ended on July 4. Despite this, its “Wall of Receipts” website is still online. As of now, it lists a total of $215 billion in claimed taxpayer savings, according to the report.