That’s one way to pump up your numbers.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency erroneously claimed a savings of $8 billion on a terminated contract this week that was actually worth just $8 million.
That gaffe sheds off about 15 percent of its claimed total savings to date, which the group claimed was $55 billion on Monday despite line items posted to its website—including the incorrect $8 billion figure at the time—totaling just a quarter of that.
These inconsistencies, among with a slew of other contracts listed as having a savings of $0, have called DOGE’s accounting into question as Musk keeps claiming he has saved Americans tens of billions more than what his own department touts.
Savings are listed as $0 for some items on DOGE’s “Wall of Receipts.” / DOGE
DOGE’s $8 billion gaffe was first spotted by The New York Times, which theorized the mistake may have came about because past versions of the since-canceled contract on the Federal Procurement Data System had incorrectly stated it was for $8 billion.
The contract was earmarked for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and was to be doled out across approximately six years. Despite the initial typo, it was clear the contract was being paid out to total only $8 million—evidenced by its first two-and-a-half years costing the federal government just $2.5 million.
At $8 billion, the contract for ICE’s “office of diversity and civil rights” would have been about the same as the entire annual budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—hammering home that this was an obvious miscalculation to anyone familiar with federal spending.
The contract, at its vastly inflated amount, was the largest savings DOGE claimed credit for on a contract on its site. The contract has since been adjusted by DOGE to reflect its actual value, of $7.992 billion less, but the department is yet to update its “estimated savings” of $55 billion at the top of its site.
DOGE has not commented on its error publicly or offered an explanation for how it came to be.
DOGE’s erroneous contract cancelation of $8 billion that was actually $8 million (as shown in their own screenshot linked to its website). / DOGE
That gaffe isn’t the only head-scratching figure on DOGE’s site. Many, including the Times, noted that DOGE has been adding the full value of a contract into its total “savings” even if the majority of the contract had already been paid out and will not be recuperated.
The ICE contract, for example, now lists a total savings of $8 million. That does not appear to be accurate, however, as it was canceled midway through completion and just $5.5 million was saved. While that difference may appear minimal alone, there are dozens—if not hundreds—of similar instances of this in the 1,127 nixed contracts listed on DOGE’s site.
DOGE also appears to be claiming credit for a pair of office closures that were announced when Joe Biden was still president. Those closures are the National Archives centers in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, and in Fairfield, Ohio. DOGE’s site claims the latter location was a “True Termination – Agency Closed Office.” No other details are offered.
Those centers’ approximate closing dates—as being sometimes in 2025—were announced on Aug. 1 before DOGE existed, but were included as a combined $780,308 in DOGE savings.
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