Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency may be trying to inflate the numbers of its spending cuts.
DOGE published an itemized list of canceled government contracts Monday accounting for an alleged $16 billion in spending. Almost half of those savings were attributed to a hefty $8 billion contract for D&G Support Services to provide “program and technical support services” to the Office of Diversity and Civil Rights at the the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
There was just one problem: The DOGE website included a screenshot of the award, which showed that it was only worth $8 million, not $8 billion, as was the amount listed directly below the image.
The New York Times reported on the discrepancy Tuesday, and determined that the original contract—which started September 30, 2022—had initially been listed at a value of $8 billion in the Federal Procurement Data System. On January 22, 2025, the number was updated to $8 million. The contract said it had been signed January 30, 2025, and terminated the same day.
Now, it looks like DOGE is trying desperately to cover the mistake.
A visit to DOGE’s wall of receipts reflected the award’s actual $8 million value, but when clicking through to the D&G contract, a familiar inflated number appeared: $8 billion, plus a different signing date and a termination date pushed up to 2027. DOGE had linked to the original inaccurate contract, which supports its claim of massive savings. Meanwhile, its list reflects the accurate price.
In a statement to MeidasTouch, D&G Support Services “acknowledges that the previously reported contract value of $8 billion was incorrect.”
“The discrepancy appears to have resulted from a clerical error in the original government filing upon contract reward. The contract value had a ceiling of $8 million,” the statement said.
To add insult to injury, USASpending.com revealed that of that ceiling, only $2.5 had actually been spent, meaning that DOGE’s savings weren’t even $8 million, but more like $5.5 million.
The DOGE website boasted a total of $55 billion in cuts, which remained unchanged between Tuesday and Wednesday, despite the correction to DOGE’s accounting. It’s unclear how many more errors reside in DOGE’s buggy list of savings.
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