What Happened
The Government Accountability Office released a review of the Department of Government Efficiency’s “Wall of Receipts,” the website where DOGE posted claimed savings from canceled or changed contracts, grants and leases. As of July 7, the wall reported $110 billion in savings.
GAO found that some of those estimates were incorrect or lacked supporting evidence. The watchdog recommended that the Executive Office of the President prominently display the data limitations on the site. DOGE officials did not respond to GAO’s requests for information or interviews.
This is not a disagreement over whether cutting spending is good. It is a disagreement over whether a number on a government website should correspond to something that actually happened in the government.
The $1.7 Billion Invisible Cut
The most entertaining example involves a Department of Defense contract for information technology services at more than 700 military treatment facilities. DOGE reported $1.7 billion in savings after initially identifying the contract for termination.
GAO found that the contract was not terminated. No action was taken to reduce its scope, value or funding. Therefore, according to the watchdog, no savings were achieved. The number was not merely optimistic. It was attached to a cut that did not occur, which is a bold accounting technique usually known as “writing down a thing you considered doing.”
Grants, Leases and Methodology Fog
For grants, GAO said DOGE did not provide enough information to verify the method used to calculate 96% of the reported savings. That leaves a rather large portion of the wall in the category of “trust us,” which is not normally considered a methodology.
The lease figures had their own problem. Of 264 leases listed for termination, 108 were already being phased out when DOGE was created. GAO estimated those leases represented about $15.3 million of the $53.5 million in reported savings. The wall appears to have accepted credit for some housekeeping that was already underway.
Transparency, But With the Settings Turned Off
GAO said DOGE did provide some underlying information, but the website did not sufficiently disclose known data-quality problems or explain the limitations of the numbers. The Wall of Receipts launched in February 2025 and, according to GAO, had not been updated to explain its savings methodology or data limitations by July 7.
The name “Wall of Receipts” suggests a giant public display of proof. The report describes something closer to a restaurant bill where several line items say “savings” and the waiter declines to explain what was canceled, what was already canceled, and what is still sitting in the kitchen.
The Dumb Part
The dumb part is claiming $110 billion in savings while making the public do the accounting archaeology. Government spending is complicated. Contracts have options, obligations and potential future costs. That is exactly why a savings claim needs a clear calculation and documentation.
A real savings number can survive questions. A number that collapses when someone asks “Was the contract actually canceled?” is not a savings number. It is a prediction wearing a receipt costume.
The Bottom Line
GAO did not say every DOGE savings claim was fake. It said some were wrong or unsupported, that the stated methodology was not used for most reported contract savings, that 96% of grant savings could not be verified from the supplied information, and that one $1.7 billion contract cut never happened. The Wall of Receipts now needs a receipt for the receipts.
Sources
U.S. Government Accountability Office: DOGE Wall of Receipts review
CNN Politics: DOGE claims of saving $110 billion