Elon Musk said his “DOGE team” of government efficiency enforcers is shutting down payments to federal contractors, suggesting that the world’s richest man may have access to sensitive systems used at the U.S. Treasury Department.
“The corruption and waste is being rooted out in real-time,” Musk posted on X on Sunday, saying officials reporting to his so-called Department of Government Efficiency are “rapidly shutting down” payments to a Lutheran charity.
The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to questions about the extent of Musk’s access. President Donald Trump has put the Tesla CEO — and largest donor to his election effort — in charge of an effort to modernize federal information technology.
Musk’s weekend statements follow last week’s departure of David Lebryk, the Treasury Department’s most senior career official, who had been in charge of payment systems at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service.
Those systems are tightly controlled, and could contain sensitive information on taxpayers, contractors and beneficiaries. Treasury officials have long maintained that its role is to serve as the federal government’s checkbook — and that the decision about whether to approve or deny payment belongs to individual agencies based on funds appropriated by Congress.
“The @DOGE team discovered, among other things, that payment approval officers at Treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups. They literally never denied a payment in their entire career. Not even once,” Musk wrote on X, the social platform he owns.
Musk said DOGE was shutting down payments by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to Lutheran Family Services, a faith-based charity that has been providing social services to refugees.