"When Elon Musk vowed late last year to lead a department of government efficiency (Doge), he claimed it would operate with maximum transparency as it set about saving $2tn worth of waste and exposing massive fraud. Today, with Musk out of the White House, Doge having cut only a tiny fraction of the waste it promised, and dozens of lawsuits alleging violations of privacy and transparency laws, much of what the agency has done remains a mystery."
"The effects of Doge's initial blitz through the federal government which included dismantling the US Agency for International Development (USAID), embedding staffers in almost every agency and illegally firing people en masse are still playing out. Contrary to Musk's promises, Doge's success is vague and tough to quantify. Measuring the full impact and determining whether the agency even exists as a centralized entity anymore is difficult, complicated by an ongoing effort from the government to block disclosure of documents, which is itself a symptom of the chaos that the department created."
"Although the disarray and destruction left by Doge is evident across the globe, we still do not really know exactly how the agency operated and its true effects. Instead, humanitarian aid organizations are still trying to assess the extent of the damage that Doge created while ethics watchdogs have launched lawsuits trying to compel more transparency out of the government."
"I know it feels like all this happened over the course of several years, but the first year of this administration isn't even done, said Nikhel Sus, the deputy chief counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew). We still want to know what happened, and we still want the record to be out there, because the public is entitled to this information."
Elon Musk established Doge to lead a government efficiency push, promising maximum transparency and $2tn in waste savings and fraud exposure. The agency achieved only a tiny fraction of promised cuts while facing dozens of lawsuits alleging privacy and transparency violations. Doge dismantled USAID, embedded staff across agencies, and carried out mass firings, producing widespread disruption. Attempts to measure impact are hampered by opaque record-keeping and government efforts to block disclosure. Humanitarian organizations are coping with lost USAID funding and months of turmoil abroad. Ethics watchdogs have filed suits seeking documents and greater government transparency.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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