GAO Finds DOGE's $110 Billion Savings Claim Inflated and Full of Errors

The Department of Government Efficiency vastly overstated the taxpayer money it saved and could not substantiate most of the figures it published, according to a new review by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The GAO examined DOGE's public savings website, which claimed $110 billion in taxpayer savings, and found the total to be inflated and unreliable. DOGE could not provide enough information to verify 96% of its reported savings from canceled grants, the report said.

Despite the group's pledge of transparency, the report found DOGE did not use its own stated methodology to calculate roughly half of the savings it reported.

"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 review also found that DOGE failed to terminate some of the contracts it said it had canceled. According to the report, $27.4 billion in claimed savings was never executed, and DOGE did not provide identifying information for another $7.2 billion in claimed savings.

In one case, DOGE claimed $1.7 billion in savings from an information technology services contract for the Defense Department's Defense Health Agency. The report said no changes were ever made to that contract.

The GAO also said DOGE claimed savings from millions of dollars in leases that had already been identified for termination before the group's involvement.

DOGE was launched last year under Elon Musk with a mandate to cut federal spending, and it built the website to show taxpayers what it said it was saving. Musk has since left the effort. ABC News reached out to Musk and the White House for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

DOGE formally ended on July 4. Its "Wall of Receipts" remains online, claiming a total of $215 billion in taxpayer savings.