Niamh Shackleton
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has updated its saving figures, but the numbers are yet to be verified.
DOGE is overseen by Elon Musk, who was tasked by Donald Trump to drastically cut back on government spending to stop taxpayer money being wasted.
The tech mogul had pledged to be 'transparent' with the cuts he's making, much of which are being shown on the DOGE website.
With this in mind, DOGE has been updating people on how much it has saved so far and updated its figures on the website on February 24.
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In the update, the agency alleged it's saved an eye-watering $65 billion.
It states: "DOGE's total estimated savings are $65 billion, which is a combination of fraud detection/deletion, contract/lease cancellations, contract/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancellations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes, and regulatory savings."
While DOGE has pledged transparency, it's proving difficult to piece together where this extremely large sum has come from.
According to ABC News, $144 million has been saved from lease terminations so far, while canceled contracts makes up for around $9.6 billion — a far cry from the $65 billion DOGE is alleging to have banked.
Two huge contracts to have been axed are linked to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, both of which are OMWI Training Support related.
The two contracts are supposedly worth $9,999,999 each, says the DOGE website.
Real estate wise, a lease termination notice issued on January 29 for a DHS Office of the Undersecretary for Management in Arlington, Virginia, will supposedly save the state over $12 million over a five-year period.
But, again, where the total sum of $65 billion has come from remains unclear.
It doesn't help that the DOGE site is supposedly 'riddled with mistakes', says the New York Times (NYT).
The newspaper analyzed the contracts listed on DOGE's 'wall of receipts' and found that there were 'accounting errors, incorrect assumptions, outdated data and other mistakes'.
"While the DOGE team has surely cut some number of billions of dollars, its slapdash accounting adds to a pattern of recklessness by the group, which has recently gained access to sensitive government payment systems," NYT adds.
It's also been suggested that some of the cuts listed on the site were actually made when Joe Biden was in office.
Addressing DOGE's money-saving efforts, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Independent: "President Trump promised the American people he would establish a Department of Government Efficiency, overseen by Elon Musk, to make the federal government more efficient and accountable to taxpayers.
"Rogue bureaucrats and activist judges attempting to undermine this effort are only subverting the will of the American people. DOGE has already identified billions of dollars in savings for American taxpayers, and President Trump will continue to direct this effort until our government is truly for the people, and by the people."
She did not give an exact savings figure, however.