Trump administration’s DOGE makes nearly $4.7 trillion in federal payments “nearly impossible” to trace
US: The Treasury Department’s failure to implement a tracking code, according to the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), made it “almost impossible” to monitor around $4.7 trillion in government payments.
President Donald Trump has charged DOGE, led by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, with drastically reducing government waste and expenditure. Mass layoffs and the dissolution of government agencies have drawn criticism and legal challenges.
The Treasury Account Symbol (TAS) identifying code is the tracking code in question. The Treasury Department, along with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), issued these numbers, which the Bureau of Fiscal says are used to monitor financial data and transactions.
TAS classifies all financial transactions involving the federal government for reporting to OMB and Treasury.
The TAS field was optional for around $4.7 trillion in federal payments, according to a Monday post on X, previously Twitter, from DOGE. It was “often left blank, making traceability almost impossible.”
After reaching a deal with the Treasury, DOGE said that the field would henceforth be necessary for government expenditures.
As part of its comprehensive measures to cut government expenditure, Musk’s team has targeted the Treasury.
DOGE claimed that doing away with paper checks issued by government agencies will save around $750 million annually in a post published on X late on Sunday.
According to DOGE, in fiscal 2024, the Treasury handled 116 million paper checks and had a “physical lockbox” network in place to collect checks for passport and tax reasons. According to DOGE, each check costs $2.40 to “maintain this lockbox network.”
These numbers have not been confirmed by Newsweek, and it is unclear where DOGE got them.
A federal court on Friday prolonged a ban that keeps DOGE personnel from accessing the Treasury Department’s payment system, which manages billions of dollars in government payments and holds federal employees’ personal information.
According to DOGE’s website, their efforts have already saved an estimated $55 billion.
The Treasury Account Symbol (TAS) is an identifying identifier that connects a Treasury payment to a budget line item (normal financial procedure), according to a Monday post on X by DOGE. Traceability was almost difficult in the federal government since the TAS field was optional for about $4.7 trillion in payments and was often left empty. In order to have more insight into where the money is really going, this field is now mandatory as of Saturday. We appreciate @USTreasury’s excellent efforts.
Elon Musk said, X: “The Treasury payment integrity has been improved and is now operational! @DOGE, @USTreasury, and @FederalReserve worked together on this. Well done, everyone.
The head of the House Delivering on Government Efficiency subcommittee, Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, said, X: “$4.7 TRILLION in untraceable payments!!!!!” It is difficult to accept that this was an error or even ineptitude for 4.7 trillion reasons.
It is anticipated that DOGE would persist in its efforts to implement widespread cutbacks across the federal government. It has been suggested that Musk might save government expenditure by “at least $2 trillion” by eliminating “waste.” That’s equivalent to reducing around 30% of all federal expenditures.
