43 Wasteful Contracts With $3.5 Billion Ceiling Value Terminated: DOGE

The Department of Health and Human Services has registered the most savings under DOGE.

The Department of Government Efficiency website displayed on a phone, in this photo illustration. Oleksii Pydsosonnii/The Epoch Times

Federal agencies have terminated and descoped 43 wasteful contracts with a ceiling value of $3.5 billion, saving $222 million in taxpayer funds, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said in a Dec. 6 post on X.

The canceled contracts included “a $4.3M Dept. of Treasury IT contract to ‘develop a comprehensive strategic narrative and management approach aimed at the Human Centered Transformation and Enhanced Partnerships,’” DOGE said.

A $29 million Department of Commerce consulting contract for “providing the necessary staff to perform Program Management, providing planning, analysis, and support in managing projects” was terminated as well, it said.

The DOGE initiative has so far saved $214 billion as of Oct. 4, which amounts to more than $1,329 per taxpayer.

The savings were achieved through a combination of asset sales, workforce reductions, interest savings, regulatory savings, fraud and improper payments elimination, and grant cancellations.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has registered the most savings under DOGE, followed by the General Services Administration, Social Security Administration, Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and Small Business Administration (SBA).

In a Nov. 24 post on X, DOGE rebutted rumors that the initiative was being shut down following a Reuters article that included a quote from OPM Director Scott Kupor saying DOGE “doesn’t exist.” Kupor later claimed that the article had been selectively edited to create an attention-grabbing narrative.

DOGE said the Reuters story was “fake news,” adding that the Trump administration “was given a mandate by the American people to modernize the federal government and reduce waste, fraud, and abuse.”

During an Oct. 31 interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, former DOGE head Elon Musk said DOGE was continuing to reduce waste and fraud in the government system.

Musk said that since he left the initiative in May, DOGE has become less publicized because people who oppose it now have no single person to target.

“My death threat level went ballistic, you know, was like a rocket going to orbit. But now that I’m not in D.C., I guess they don’t really have a person to attack anymore,” Musk said.

According to DOGE, some of the “strangest, most baffling uses” of government funding it uncovered during its tenure include an $814,000 grant from the HHS for “a daily diary examination of the influence of intersectional stigma on blood pressure” and an $801,000 HHS grant for “structural racism and discrimination in older men’s health inequities.”

In a Dec. 6 post on X, DOGE praised SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler for taking action to end abuse in the agency’s 8(a) Business Development Program.

The program is aimed at helping small business owners deemed to be socially or economically disadvantaged. Participants gain access to contracting opportunities in the federal marketplace.

The SBA said in a Dec. 5 statement that it had sent letters to more than 4,300 8(a) participants, asking them to produce financial documents for the past three years.

“There is mounting evidence that the 8(a) Program designed for ‘socially and economically disadvantaged’ businesses went from being a targeted program to a pass-through vehicle for rampant abuse and fraud—especially during the Biden Administration, which aggressively prioritized [diversity, equity, and inclusion] over merit in federal contracting,” Loeffler said.

Pass-through entities are those that are not themselves taxed; instead, the individual owners are taxed.

Business owners who fail to comply with the records request by Jan. 5 risk losing their eligibility to participate in the 8(a) program.

Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled the name of OPM Director Scott Kupor. The Epoch Times regrets the error.