By Brad Heath, Tim Reid and Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s government cost-cutting effort has so far pared hundreds of relatively small contracts it says have saved U.S. taxpayers $8.5 billion, according to a Reuters analysis of partial data published by his team, a fraction of what the U.S. government pays contractors each year.
Most of the contracts targeted by the Department of Government Efficiency resulted in savings averaging about $7.7 million each, according to the analysis of records on the DOGE website. These were focused mostly on relatively low-cost support services, including for computer systems and workforce training.
DOGE said on its website on Wednesday it had saved $55 billion in federal spending overall since President Donald Trump took office on January 20, through a mix of contract cancellations, firing workers and asset sales.
DOGE acknowledged on the website that the itemized amounts for about 1,100 canceled contracts and 100 canceled leases did not add up to $55 billion and said it would continue publishing new data on a rolling basis.
The data offered the most comprehensive, although still mostly incomplete, view to date of the Trump administration’s efforts to slash government costs. It also showed how far they have to go to reach Musk’s goal of cutting $1 trillion in federal spending.
The publication of the data followed widespread skepticism of assertions by Musk and Trump that the cost-cutting effort has already led to significant savings. The partial data release may do little to quell those misgivings given the lack of accounting for the other $46 billion or so in claimed savings.
DOGE’s disclosures faced swift criticism this week for having claimed to save $8 billion by cutting a contract that was only worth around $8 million. An executive for the company that held the contract told The New York Times there had been a clerical error in federal contracting data.
On its website, DOGE said some of the savings came from “fraud detection,” but it provided no examples of any fraud.
The White House and DOGE did not respond to a request for comment.
SHROUDED IN SECRECY
The contract savings so far account for little of what the federal government pays for services each year. In the fiscal year that ended in 2023, it had $759 billion worth of contracts, according to the Government Accountability Office, an independent congressional agency that provides data on federal spending.
DOGE has moved quickly through government agencies since Trump took office on January 20, firing tens of thousands of workers, hollowing out some departments, and entering computer systems with the personal data of millions of Americans, triggering fear and chaos throughout much of the federal workforce.
Many of DOGE’s actions have been shrouded in secrecy, despite Musk’s pledge of transparency. Musk, DOGE’s figurehead and driving force, is not a government employee or even in charge of the group, according to a White House court filing on Tuesday.
DOGE has claimed that it cut $6.5 billion in contracts from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which provides aid to the world’s needy and whose operations the administration has effectively shuttered.
It said it had cut $501 million from the Department of Education and $232 million from the Social Security Administration, the government-run benefits system, most of which came from a large contract to help maintain the agency’s technology operations.
It wasn’t clear how DOGE arrived at its figures. Some of the contracts were listed in federal records as involving substantially more money. Many of the contracts are multi-year agreements for which some money has already gone out the door.
DOGE’s data valued the total value of the contracts they cut at nearly $14 billion, but with savings of $8.5 billion, suggesting substantial sums have already been paid to contractors and won’t be clawed back.
The size of contracts targeted so far are tiny compared to many other federal agreements. Musk’s own SpaceX, for example, has about $22 billion in contracts with the U.S. government.
(Reporting by Brad Heath, Tim Reid and Andy Sullivan in Washington, editing by Ross Colvin and Deepa Babington)
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