By Naveen Athrappully

Over the past three days, federal agencies have terminated and descoped 55 “wasteful” contracts with a ceiling value of $1.6 billion, resulting in savings of $542 million, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said in a Jan. 2 post on X.

The canceled contracts include a $47 million State Department contract for “Africa/Djibouti, Somalia armored personnel carriers and Somalia National Army crew,” DOGE said.

Another contract, valued at $19.5 million, was awarded by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for supporting an IT project at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

A $151,000 Department of War education services contract for “Director’s Development Program in Leadership—Partnership course to be held at Northwestern University” was terminated as well.

In a Christmas-day post on X, DOGE announced the termination and descoping of 14 “NAUGHTY contracts” with a ceiling value of $190 million and savings of $98 million. This included a $27,000 Veterans Affairs utilities contract for two eight-passenger golf carts.

According to a Jan. 1 update on the DOGE website, the initiative has so far saved an estimated $215 billion, or around $1,335 per taxpayer.

The savings were achieved through various tactics, including reducing the workforce, canceling or renegotiating contracts and leases, eliminating fraud and improper payments, and selling assets.

Agencies that have saved the most under DOGE are the HHS, the General Services Administration, the Social Security Administration, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and the Small Business Administration.

According to DOGE, some of the “strangest, most baffling uses” of government funding uncovered by the agency include a $620,000 grant for “adapting an LGB+ inclusive teen pregnancy prevention program for transgender boys” and an $814,000 grant for a “daily diary examination of the influence of intersectional stigma on blood pressure.”

In a Nov. 24 post on X, DOGE dismissed rumors of the initiative being shut down. The post followed a Reuters report that included a quote from OPM Director Scott Kupor, who said DOGE “doesn’t exist.” Kupor later claimed the report had been selectively edited to create an attention-grabbing narrative.

The Reuters report was “fake news,” DOGE said. The Trump administration “was given a mandate by the American people to modernize the federal government and reduce waste, fraud, and abuse.”

In a Dec. 31 post on X, DOGE commended the HHS and its Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill for targeting child care payment fraud in Minnesota.

On Dec. 30, HHS announced it was halting all funding related to this matter, a decision that followed federal investigations into alleged systemic fraud in the program. O’Neill said he believes the state has allowed scammers and fake day care centers to steal millions of dollars in federal funding.

O’Neill wrote a letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, requesting a comprehensive audit of child care centers involved in the alleged fraud.

HHS provides $185 million per year to Minnesota for child care funding, according to the department’s Assistant Secretary Alex Adams, who oversees the program.

“That money should be helping 19,000 American children, including toddlers and infants,” he said in a video posted on X on Dec. 30. “Any dollar stolen by fraudsters is stolen from those children.”

The department now requires photo evidence before it sends “Administration for Children and Families” funds to any U.S. state.

Meanwhile, former DOGE head Elon Musk, who left the initiative in May 2025, said in a Dec. 10, 2025, interview on The Katie Miller Podcast that he believes DOGE has been “somewhat successful” at fulfilling its objectives.

The initiative stopped a lot of funding that “just made no sense,” and that was “just entirely wasteful,” Musk said.

“But, there are just, I call it, 2 or 3 percent of government payments that go out that really should not be going out. And it’s actually quite hard to stop.”