DOGE, the internet meme turned acronym for the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, has dismantled federal agencies, cut thousands from the government workforce and directed scores of federal contracts and leases be canceled in the month since President Donald Trump took office.
It’s an effort DOGE estimated as of Wednesday morning that has saved taxpayers $65 billion — but that’s not the full picture. The reality is messier. The sum total savings is also far less substantial, numerous media reports show, and likely less than $10 billion, so far.
DOGE’s accounting of a terminated contract for an Atlanta-based company shows some of the reasons why.
K.L. Scott & Associates, a management and information technology consulting firm headquartered downtown, had a five-year agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) Assessment and Training services,” according to the Federal Procurement Data System.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The new administration terminated the contract on Jan. 22. DOGE’s database lists the total contract value of K.L. Scott’s agreement with the USDA as $25 million. But that figure is actually the potential value of the agreement. The contract was a blanket purchase agreement, meaning the ceiling of what could be spent was $25 million, not the amount that the agency was guaranteed to pay out. DOGE has also duplicated parts of the award in its list of contract savings, inflating that total.
In response to a request for comment, a consultant close to K.L. Scott replied with a link to a government database that gave more information about the value of the contract. The USDA signed the agreement with the company in September 2023, and in the year and a half the agreement was in place, about $835,000 was allocated by the USDA for the contract.
K.L. Scott only drew down close to $600,000 across two orders, according to government spending database USAspending.gov. Another $237,000 would have been available for the firm through March if the contract hadn’t been terminated, so DOGE lists that as savings. But that’s on top of the $25 million it claims to have saved from canceling the agreement. DOGE did not respond to a request for comment about why it lists the contracts separately when it is one overall award.
A recent New York Times analysis showed DOGE has double and triple counted savings at times, and made incorrect assumptions and flat out mistakes in its accounting.
And K.L. Scott is likely not the only contract where its ceiling value is presented as the total value.
“One of the questions to ask with respect to the data they show is whether the dollars associated with a contract that’s been terminated, are the ceiling of that contract … or whether it’s the actual action that was terminated,” said David Berteau, president and CEO of PSC, a trade group that represents government contractors.
DOGE notes on its website that, “There may be discrepencies (sic) between FPDS and the posted numbers, the latter of which originate directly from the agency contracting officials.”
In response to a list of detailed questions about DOGE, Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement that Trump and his administration “are ensuring that taxpayer-funded programs align with the national interests of the United States, including protecting America’s farmers. He will cut programs that do not align with the agenda that the American people gave him a mandate in November to implement and keep programs that put America First.”
It’s unclear what impact the USDA contract cancellation is having on K.L. Scott. The company did not respond to an emailed list of questions, but in the weeks since its agreement was terminated, the company has posted three new jobs on LinkedIn, including a federal Health & Human Services account manager and a federal proposal writer.
But a recent court ruling could affect the contract’s termination. A federal judge on Friday issued a preliminary injunction blocking the administration from, among other things, implementing a provision of one of the president’s executive orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that required federal agencies to terminate “equity-related grants or contracts.”
The administration has appealed the decision, but if the courts continue to rule against Trump, it’s unclear if the termination of K.L. Scott’s USDA contract would stand since it was for DEI training.
Overall, nearly 40% of the contracts DOGE claims to have canceled are not expected to save the government any money, according to a Tuesday report by The Associated Press. Fact-checking site PolitiFact on Monday estimated the group’s savings are actually $8.6 billion, or 0.1% of what the federal government spent last fiscal year and one-eighth the amount DOGE claims to have saved. DOGE did not respond to a request for comment about the discrepancy.
DOGE is also taking credit for saving nearly $545,000 by closing a government office in Atlanta. The office in question? Former President Jimmy Carter’s office at the Carter Center, a benefit that ended with his death, weeks before the new administration came into power, according to NBC News.
But Berteau from the PSC said ultimately, every new administration has “both the right and the responsibility to align what the government’s doing with their priorities.”
He said that’s what this administration is doing, but noted, “this one is different in a number of ways, but at its core, it’s the same dynamic.”
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