A watchdog agency, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), has revealed that many of the savings reported by the now‑closed Doge body are either incorrect or unsubstantiated. The GAO report, released Thursday, reviewed Doge’s famous "Wall of Receipts"—a website that claimed the agency had cut federal costs by a staggering $110 billion across contracts, grants, and leases.

Key findings include:

  • A majority of the reported savings lacked a clear, transparent calculation method. The GAO noted that Doge did not provide adequate details to verify the figures for 96% of the claimed savings.
  • Hundreds of leases that Doge said it had terminated were already in the process of ending before the agency was founded. In one case, 108 leases were identified, accounting for only about $15 million of the $53.5 million the agency claimed.
  • Some savings claims were entirely unsupported. For example, Doge listed $1.7 billion in savings from a supposed defense‑industry IT contract termination, yet the contract was never actually cancelled.

Dog e was never an official department. It launched in late 2017, during President Donald Trump’s second term, and closed last month. Elon Musk, the billionaire behind Tesla and SpaceX, had led the effort until May 2025 and promised up to $2 trillion in annual savings, though even under Doge’s own estimates the agency fell short at $214 billion.

The agency’s audit, requested by Democratic senators Gary Peters and Richard Blumenthal, covered data reported between January 2025 and July 2026. In a statement, Senator Peters called Doge a “slapdash and deceptive effort that misled the American people” and criticized the lack of transparency. The GAO report concluded that the Wall of Receipts did not disclose how the calculations were made or the limitations that might affect data accuracy.

Dog e’s closure announcement mentioned that the agency’s mission to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse would continue, however the watchdog’s findings cast doubt on the agency’s record and its ability to serve the public.