Musk's DOGE touted slashing an $8 billion contract. It actually cut $8 million.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency steered by Elon Musk boasted it had already saved taxpayers $55 billion ‒ but the group's itemized savings fall vastly short of that figure and included a glaring error.
On a new "wall of receipts" posted Tuesday on DOGE's website, the largest canceled federal contract listed was purported to include $8 billion. But the most recent version of that contract, a 2022 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agreement with D&G Support Services, was for $8 million.
Even when including the $7.992 billion mistake, DOGE's documented canceled contracts, grants and real estate leases on the "wall of receipts" page amounted to about $16.5 billion, but nowhere close to $55 billion.
By Wednesday morning, the itemized savings equaled $8.5 billion, excluding the $7.992 billion error. And even that total is in doubt given other miscalculations.
The mistake raises questions about DOGE's accounting and savings claims as the billionaire tech entrepreneur Musk and his team of young computer and IT specialists fan through the federal government in a push to drastically cut federal spending.
The canceled ICE contract in question was written to D&G Support Services, a Woodbridge, Virginia professional management consultant. It lists its expertise online as: “We enable effective global operations through the integration of unparalleled logistics expertise and comprehensive technology solutions.”
When the contract was originally approved in February 2022, it listed a value of $8 billion ‒ in an apparent clerical error. For perspective, the entire ICE budget for fiscal year 2024 was $8.7 billion.
On Jan. 22, two days after Trump was sworn in as president, records show the figure was updated and corrected to $8 million. Nevertheless, DOGE included the outdated contract in its tally of savings posted Tuesday.
The ICE contract was signed in 2022 to support the agency’s Office of Diversity and Civil Rights. So far, about $2.5 million has been paid on the contract. Canceling it now saves about $5.5 million.
D&G, like many federal contractors, benefits from being a small business that is service-disabled and veteran-owned. Federal contracting data shows the Virginia firm holds about $49.2 million in contracts total, most prominently for the U.S. Coast Guard providing it $18 million in work.
"D&G Support Services (DBA D&G Solutions) acknowledges that the previously reported contract value of $8 billion was incorrect," the company’s CEO Leah Sanders said in a statement to Paste BN. "This discrepancy appears to have resulted from a clerical error in the original government filing upon contract award. The contract value had a ceiling of $8 million.
"D&G is proud to maintain long-term contracts with the federal government, providing integrated logistics and supply chain solutions," Sanders added.
After reporters began questioning the discrepancy Tuesday night, the figure on DOGE's website was corrected to $8 million, but a link still displayed the incorrect $8 billion figure. The contract was always only worth $8 million despite any clerical mistake.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Musk has said DOGE will be "maximally transparent" with its work and acknowledged the group will make mistakes. "Nobody’s going to bat 1.000," Musk said last week alongside Trump in the Oval Office. "We will make mistakes, but we’ll act quickly to correct any mistakes.”
How the DOGE team arrived at the $55 billion savings figure is unclear.
Jessica Riedl, a budget expert and senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute think tank, estimated true savings from DOGE's itemized contracts amount to about $4 billion.
For example, Riedl said DOGE did not factor in obligated funds the government must still pay even if a contract is canceled. In other instances, DOGE tallied the maximum ceiling for a contract even if the entire funding hadn't been obligated.
"DOGE has thus far looked like 'amateur hour' with a lot of Silicon Valley people who just don't have the expertise in federal budget or federal accounting to fully grasp what they're doing," said Riedl, who previously worked as chief economist for former Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
In all, DOGE's website lists 1,225 canceled contracts, grants and real estate leases.
The federal agency that produced the most savings in DOGE's "wall of receipts" is the U.S. Agency for International Development, which the Trump administration has moved to dismantle.
The largest overall canceled contract, $655 million, was a USAID indefinite delivery contract for three companies that provide economic development and anti-poverty services in underdeveloped nations.
However, $655 million is the ceiling that can be spent under the contract. And DOGE counted the contract three times in its tally for inaccurate savings of nearly $2 billion. In reality, only $73 million has been awarded across the three firms and $54 million has been spent.
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison and Nick Penzenstadler at @npenzenstadler