Doge saves $ 8 billion by canceling an $ 8 million contract
Doge saves $ 8 billion by canceling an $ 8 million contract
Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) this week has published an overview of some of the government contracts that it canceled and claims to have saved the taxpayers around $ 55 billion.
questionable savings and incorrect data
The published list of contracts published on Monday evening on a Doge website raises questions about the accuracy of these savings. The website seems to have used incorrect federal data to say that Doge has saved $ 8 billion in the US CONTRONG and GRANSCHOOD (ICE), although this contract was actually worth a maximum of $ 8 million.
inadequate savings from uncertain contracts
A review of the contract data from CNN showed that about two thirds of the overall savings of the contracts listed on the Doge website come from the maximum sum that could have been issued for so-called "indefinite delivery contracts" such as the ICE contract in question, even if the government would probably not issue this sum. A former Federal Government's former contractor described Doge's savings.
overview of the canceled contracts
The most expensive canceled contract
The currently largest cancellation contract on the Doge website, which was listed on Tuesday afternoon, was signed between ICE and a company from Virginia in 2022. In the federal documents, this contract is described as the provision of "program and technical support services" for the office for diversity and civil rights of ICE.
According to the Doge website, the termination of this contract cost the federal government $ 8 billion. This seems to be based on an entry in the Federal Procurement Data System, a database for government contracts. When the contract was originally signed in 2022, its maximum total value was Listed $ 8 billion -about the same amount as the entire annual budget of ICE, in accordance with the Website der Author.
faulty claims and actual values
The company, which received the contract, a company run by veterans called D&G Solutions, said CNN that this was a mistake - the contract was actually worth a maximum of $ 8 million and not $ 8 billion. "This discrepancy seems to be due to a clerical error in the original government declaration when the contract allocated," wrote Leah Sanders, the CEO, in an email.
on January 22, two days after Trump's taking office, the error was corrected, and the maximum total value of the contract was 8 million dollars changed , as can be seen from the database documents. On January 29, the contract terminated "for all Deia-related services" in accordance with an executive arrangement signed by President Donald Trump. The following day this was on a Termination changed.
flexibility of the indefinite delivery contracts
The contract is a so -called "indefinite delivery Vehicle", a kind of federal contract that allows more flexibility. If the government agreed an IDV contract, it determines a maximum amount for the total amount that could be issued theoretically, however, it does not undertake to actually issue anything. Joe Jordan, who worked as a Federal Government's main procurement officer during the Obama administration, said: "The whole point that it is an indefinite delivery is that you may not buy anything."
So far, according to Data only only $ 2.5 million under the contract, and in addition $ 1 million are committed. Jordan said it was not unusual for authorities to agree with such contracts and then issue significantly below the maximum amount.
Criticism of the savings claims
The claim that the cancellation of the contract saved the government $ 8 billion is "completely insincere," said Jordan. "It is completely consistent with the Doge approach to use completely out of context output data and quick cancellation actions to promote savings that are not real." According to Jordan, the savings do not reach the claimed amounts based on all data viewed so far.
The claim for the savings of $ 8 billion was .
reactions and other inconsistencies
A spokesman for Doge did not react to the obvious mistake on Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday morning, the department's website was updated to change the $ 8 billion to $ 8 million, while the total saving of around $ 55 billion remained unchanged. ICE did not react to an inquiry.
The ICE contract was not the only questionable savings amount that Doge stated. The Fourth largest which are listed on the Doge website, come from three IDV contracts signed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USA) and relate to services for the research office of the authority. Each contract has a maximum maximum amount of $ 655 million.
Since the contracts were signed in 2020, the government has signed around 55 million dollars for all three of the last four and a half years according to USA Spending . However, since Doges saves the theoretically maximum expenditure, the department claims that it has saved the taxpayers over $ 1.9 billion through the cancellation of these contracts.
summary of the dog savings
A total of about two thirds of the overall savings of Doge on the website-including the original $ 8 billion for the ICE contract-came from IDV contracts, whereby the savings amounts were based on the maximum possible expenses.
Of the more than 1,000 other canceled contracts published on the Doge website, over 250 USAID, which was intensively criticized by Musk and Trump. Around 130 of the published contracts were created with the news medium politico, apparently for subscriptions. Doge stated that the cancellation of these contracts saved around $ 11 million. Further media contracts that have been canceled concluded for Bloomberg, the New York Times and the Washington Post.
While Musk praises Doge's cost -saving efforts, he repeatedly emphasized that it is a "maximum transparent" approach. At the same time, he has also admitted that his sometimes exaggerated claims about government spending can miss the goal: "Some of the things I say will not be true and have to be corrected",