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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Yes. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) began examining DOGE’s handling of data and safeguards across federal agencies, according to WIRED on April 9, 2025. Since then, GAO has published separate reviews of Treasury payment-system access, security controls at six agencies, DOGE’s claimed savings, and personnel records. They are not one comprehensive audit of every DOGE activity—and the reports include both documented problems and important limits on what GAO could verify.
What “DOGE is getting audited” means
WIRED’s April 9, 2025 report described GAO work then underway concerning DOGE’s handling of data at several agencies and the U.S. DOGE Service (USDS). WIRED reported that GAO had requested information such as system-access details, user privileges, audit logs, incident records, training, risk assessments, and safeguards. At that stage, the review’s full scope and methodology had not been settled publicly. GAO spokesperson Sarah Kaczmarek told WIRED: “The first thing GAO does as any work begins is to determine the full scope of what we will cover and the methodology to be used. Until that is done, we cannot provide any additional details or estimates on when the work will be completed.”
GAO later published distinct reports with different questions, review periods, records, and agencies in scope. “Audit” is a useful shorthand, but it should not imply that GAO examined every DOGE program, every agency, or every person associated with DOGE.
What GAO reviewed—and when
| GAO report | Subject and period | What the review can establish |
|---|---|---|
| Treasury payment systems, April 28, 2026 | DOGE team access to Bureau of the Fiscal Service payment systems from January 20 through April 11, 2025; selected controls and whether staff followed them. | Specific access and control findings about the bureau’s systems and the reviewed period. |
| DOGE’s Wall of Receipts, August 6, 2026 | Methods and data limitations for savings posted from January 20, 2025 through July 7, 2026; nongeneralizable samples of contracts and grants, plus all 264 GSA leases listed on the page. | Whether selected reported savings were supported and how the site disclosed limitations—not an independently verified total of all federal savings. |
| DOGE personnel and ethics records, August 5, 2026 | Positions held by DOGE personnel within the Executive Office of the President (EOP) from January 20, 2025 through January 31, 2026, plus training, financial disclosures, and records-management information. | Findings about the defined EOP personnel and records GAO could obtain, not a complete census of everyone who may have worked on DOGE initiatives. |
| System access at six agencies, September 29, 2026 | Access to systems and related controls at CFPB, Education, NOAA, SEC, SBA, and VA. | Information supplied by the reviewed agencies and material gaps where agencies did not provide requested access or control information. |
What GAO found about access to agency systems
Six-agency review: important information was missing
Four of the six agencies reported that DOGE teams had access to more than 23 systems collectively. Those systems supported functions including contracts, grants, human resources, and finances, and included sensitive personal information. But GAO could not determine from the information it received what specific permissions team members had, whether they could view personal data, or whether they could change records. The Small Business Administration (SBA) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) did not respond to GAO’s requests identifying the systems DOGE teams could access.
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Control documentation was also incomplete. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Education, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) supplied limited documentation; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), SBA, and VA did not respond to requests about controls. GAO said that without the requested information, Congress and the public lacked assurance that all six agencies had controls to ensure information was properly secured. That is an assurance gap—not proof that every agency lacked controls or that DOGE personnel misused information.
Treasury review: access was documented, but GAO found no evidence of altered data
In its separate review of the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, GAO found that one DOGE team employee could view, copy, and print data in three payment systems. The employee was inadvertently given temporary permission to create, modify, and delete information in one system. GAO found no evidence that system data changed. The distinction matters: a capability to alter records is not evidence that someone actually did so.
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GAO also found that the bureau had implemented five of 14 selected controls across four cybersecurity control areas and had not fully addressed three of those four areas. In a separate data-handling incident, an employee sent unencrypted payment information outside the bureau without obtaining approval to share it.
What GAO found about DOGE’s claimed savings
As of July 7, 2026, DOGE’s Wall of Receipts reported $110 billion in savings across contracts, grants, and leases. That is DOGE’s reported figure, not a GAO-verified savings total. GAO found that some estimates were incorrect or unsupported and identified problems with methodology and disclosure. Its work used nongeneralizable samples for contracts and grants, so the sampled findings should not be treated as a complete review of every posted item.
- Leases already in process: GAO found that 108 of the 264 GSA leases on the Wall of Receipts, associated with $15.3 million of the reported $53.5 million in lease savings, were already in a termination process when DOGE was established.
- Grant calculation: GAO said there was insufficient information to verify the method used to calculate the 96 percent share of grant savings claimed by DOGE.
- Defense Health Agency contract: DOGE reported $1.7 billion in savings for an IT-services contract. GAO found no termination, scope reduction, value reduction, or funding reduction for that contract, and concluded that no savings had been achieved on it.
GAO recommended that the Executive Office of the President, through USDS, prominently display known data-quality issues and limitations. That recommendation concerns how claims are presented; it does not itself establish a corrected total.
What GAO found about personnel and ethics records
GAO identified 206 people who held EOP positions as DOGE personnel during its defined review period. That group included 27 special government employees, and GAO identified at least 128 separations. These figures describe the people and positions covered by that review, not everyone who may have contributed to DOGE work.
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GAO could not determine complete totals for training or financial disclosures because, as of July 23, 2026, the EOP and 10 agencies had not provided requested records. Information from nine agencies covered 64 personnel and reported 49 completions of ethics training, 18 completions of records-management training, and 38 financial disclosures. Those are counts within the information available for that subset, not complete DOGE-wide totals.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Does this mean DOGE’s work has ended?
GAO reported that the formal DOGE temporary organization terminated on July 4, 2026. It also noted that broader USDS or agency work on related initiatives could continue. GAO cited an official DOGE post saying the formal mission had ended, while the Wall of Receipts remained live as of July 7, 2026. Those are dated statements; they do not establish the current status of every related effort or whether the site has remained unchanged since then.
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How to read the findings
- Separate findings from unanswered questions. GAO documented particular access, control, data-handling, savings, and recordkeeping issues. In other areas—especially permissions at the six agencies and incomplete personnel records—it said it lacked information needed to reach a fuller conclusion.
- Keep the scope attached to every number. The more-than-23-systems figure came from four agencies’ reports in a six-agency review; the $110 billion figure came from DOGE’s site; and the personnel figures refer to defined EOP roles and periods.
- Do not treat access as proof of misuse. In the Treasury review, GAO found temporary ability to change records but no evidence that system data changed.
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