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NYT: DOGE's Zombie Contracts: They Were Killed but Have Come Back to Life
NYT - (archived: https://archive.ph/Ze9Lq ) DOGE’s Zombie Contracts: They Were Killed but Have Come Back to Life
The Times found that federal agencies have revived dozens of contracts that Elon Musk’s group still publicly listed as canceled, inflating what it has saved.
By David A. Fahrenthold and Jeremy Singer-Vine
The authors reported this story by analyzing a database of government contracts and talking to businesses whose contracts had been revoked.
May 9, 2025, 9:31 a.m. ET
At least 44 of the government contracts canceled on the orders of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting initiative have been resurrected by federal agencies, wiping out more than $220 million of his group’s purported savings, according to a New York Times analysis of federal spending data.
But Mr. Musk’s group continues to list 43 of those contracts as “terminations” on its website, which it calls the “Wall of Receipts.” The group even added some of them days or weeks after they had been resurrected. The result was another in a series of data errors on the website that made the group seem more successful in reducing government costs than it had been.
The White House says that this is a paperwork lag that will be remedied.
The revived contracts ranged from small-dollar agreements about software licenses to large partnerships with vendors that managed government data and records. Most of the contracts were canceled in February and March, when Mr. Musk’s group, the Department of Government Efficiency, was demanding that agencies make huge cuts in spending and staff.
Then agencies reinstated them, sometimes just days later. In one case, the Environmental Protection Agency revived a contract after just 2 ½ hours. Mr. Musk’s group still listed that one as canceled for weeks afterward, even after it had been revived and then extended — so that it will cost more now than before.
/snip
The Times found that federal agencies have revived dozens of contracts that Elon Musk’s group still publicly listed as canceled, inflating what it has saved.
By David A. Fahrenthold and Jeremy Singer-Vine
The authors reported this story by analyzing a database of government contracts and talking to businesses whose contracts had been revoked.
May 9, 2025, 9:31 a.m. ET
At least 44 of the government contracts canceled on the orders of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting initiative have been resurrected by federal agencies, wiping out more than $220 million of his group’s purported savings, according to a New York Times analysis of federal spending data.
But Mr. Musk’s group continues to list 43 of those contracts as “terminations” on its website, which it calls the “Wall of Receipts.” The group even added some of them days or weeks after they had been resurrected. The result was another in a series of data errors on the website that made the group seem more successful in reducing government costs than it had been.
The White House says that this is a paperwork lag that will be remedied.
The revived contracts ranged from small-dollar agreements about software licenses to large partnerships with vendors that managed government data and records. Most of the contracts were canceled in February and March, when Mr. Musk’s group, the Department of Government Efficiency, was demanding that agencies make huge cuts in spending and staff.
Then agencies reinstated them, sometimes just days later. In one case, the Environmental Protection Agency revived a contract after just 2 ½ hours. Mr. Musk’s group still listed that one as canceled for weeks afterward, even after it had been revived and then extended — so that it will cost more now than before.
/snip
3 replies
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