DOGE deactivates over 200,000 government credit cards after audit

11 Mar 2025 15:23
11 Mar 2025 15:24

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DOGE deactivates over 200,000 government credit cards after audit

Photo: AP

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has announced that it has deactivated more than 200,000 credit cards linked to 16 federal agencies following an audit that identified them as unused or unnecessary.

"Weekly Credit Card Update! Pilot program with 16 agencies to audit unused/unneeded credit cards. After 3 weeks, >200,000 cards have been de-activated. Great progress this past week by @HHSGov [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services] @Interior [U.S. Department of the Interior]," DOGE wrote on the social media platform X, News.Az reports, citing US media.

"As a reminder, at the start of the audit, there were ~4.6M active cards/accounts, so still more work to do."

DOGE, a new advisory body established by executive order on January 20 and led by the world's richest man, Elon Musk, has been tapped by Donald Trump to shrink the size of the federal government and cut off any waste or inefficiency found in its operations.

Since January, the cost-cutting department has recommended the firing of more than 200,000 federal workers, while about 75,000 have accepted the Trump administration's offer to voluntarily resign. These measures have outraged Democrats and voters, sparking fears and uncertainty around the future of many federal agencies as the department slashes their workforce.

Musk's apparently unfettered powers have also come under scrutiny, with critics claiming that his status of unelected "special government employee" does not give the billionaire legal authority to make federal spending decisions.

DOGE has recently started to offer updates on its activities in an effort to increase transparency around its operations. In an update made on Monday, the department said it had cut off more than 200,000 government credit cards after three weeks of auditing, out of a total of roughly 4.6 million cards active at the time of the audit's start.

According to DOGE, 4.6 million government credit cards totaled $40 billion in spending last year.

The department provided a list of all the agencies affected by these deactivations, which include the General Service Administration (GSA), the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Interior, NASA, the U.S. Department of Housing And Urban Development (HUD), the Treasury, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), among others.

Already last week, DOGE announced on X that it had cut off roughly 145,000 government credit cards during its two weeks audit of 16 federal agencies. Musk said last week, resharing the post from DOGE: "There are still almost twice as many credit/purchasing cards as people in the government, and the limits are $10,000! A lot of shady expenditures happening."

News.Az