Elon Musk’s DOGE claims $8 bn saved by scrapping ICE contract, but actual amount is not even close: Report

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the Donald Trump administration’s cost-cutting agency, headed by billionaire Elon Musk, said that it had saved $16 billion by cancelling several government contracts. Among the most notable cancellations was an $8 billion contract with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) which is part of the Department of Homeland Security agency, which accounted for nearly half of its reported savings. However, a report by the New York Times revealed that the actual value of the ICE contract was found to be just $8 million and not $8 billion.

The document shows that D&G Support Services was awarded the contract to offer “program and technical support services” to the Office of Diversity and Civil Rights at the ICE.

The report states that the $8 billion ICE contract, as claimed by DOGE, is almost equal to the entire budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition, the contract, which is set to expire in 2027, has only used $2.5 million of the allocated funds in the two and a half years since it was signed.

In addition to this, the website states that “DOGE’s total estimated savings are $55 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.”

Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, spearheads DOGE, which has taken the lead role in carrying out the Republican president’s plans for downsizing and overhauling the federal government.

DOGE has swept through federal agencies, slashing thousands of jobs and dismantling various programs, since Trump returned to office last month and put Musk in charge of rooting out what they see as wasteful spending as part of the president’s dramatic overhaul of government.

(With inputs from Reuters)