Latest news with #WallofReceipts
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Government Furiously Trying to Undo Elon Musk's Damage
Federal agencies scrambled to bring back over $220 million worth of contracts after Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency cancelled them, The New York Times reports. However, of those 44 contracts that were cancelled and eventually reinstated, DOGE is still citing all but one of them as examples of the government spending the group supposedly saved on its website's error-plagued "Wall of Receipts." The White House told the NYT that this is "paperwork lag" that will be fixed. Clerical errors or not, the "zombie contracts" are a damning sign of the chaos sowed by the billionaire's hasty and sweeping cost-cutting that would seem antithetical to its stated goals of efficiency. "They should have used a scalpel," Rachel Dinkes of the Knowledge Alliance, an association of education companies that includes one that lost a contract, told the NYT. "But instead they went in with an axe and chopped it all down." Musk brought the Silicon Valley ethos of "move fast and break things" he uses at his business ventures, like SpaceX, to his cleaning house of the federal government. And this, it seems, resulted in a lot of wasted time and effort. Some of the contracts DOGE cancelled were required by law, according to the NYT, and some were for skills that the government needed but didn't have. The whiplash was most felt at the Department of Veterans Affairs, which reversed 16 cancelled contracts — the highest of any agency in the NYT's analysis. Many of the contracts that DOGE cancelled were reinstated almost immediately. The Environmental Protection Agency, for example, revived a contract just two and a half hours after Musk's team cancelled it, the paper found. Others were brought back within days. After losing a contract with the US Department of Agriculture in February, Raquel Romero and her husband gained it back four days later. The USDA told the NYT that it reinstated the contract after discovering that it was "required by statute," but declined to specify which one. Romero believes that a senior lawyer at the agency, who was a supporter of the couple's work, intervened on their behalf. "All I know is, she retired two weeks later," Romero told the NYT. The waste doesn't end there. Since the contracts are necessary, it puts the fired contractors in a stronger bargaining position when the government comes crawling back. In the case of the EPA contract, the agency agreed to pay $171,000 more than before the cancellation. In other words, these cuts are costing, not saving, the government money. A White House spokesperson, however, tried to spin the flurry of reversals as a positive sign that the agencies are complying with Musk's chaotic directions, while also playing down the misleading savings claims on DOGE's website. "The DOGE Wall of Receipts provides the latest and most accurate information following a thorough assessment, which takes time," White House spokesman Harrison Fields told the NYT. "Updates to the DOGE savings page will continue to be made promptly, and departments and agencies will keep highlighting the massive savings DOGE is achieving." Harrison also called the over $220 million of zombie contracts "very, very small potatoes" compared to the supposed $165 billion Musk has saved American taxpayers. If this latest analysis is any indication, however, that multibillion-dollar sum warrants significant skepticism. We're only beginning to see a glimmer of the true fallout from Musk tornadoing through the federal government. More on DOGE: This DOGE Operative Got a Huge Surprise Once He Was Actually Inside the Government
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Yahoo
Man gets five years in federal prison for threatening prosecutor
A Brewton man has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for threatening a prosecutor. Terry Holmes, 54, was sentenced to 60 months in prison after Holmes pleaded guilty to mailing a threatening communication, said Kevin Davidson, acting United States attorney for the Middle District of Alabama. The sentence, the maximum allowed under the federal statute, will run consecutively to the state prison term Holmes is currently serving with the Alabama Department of Corrections on unrelated charges. There is no parole in the federal system. In addition to the prison sentence, Holmes was ordered to pay $26,185.70 in restitution. 'No one who serves the cause of justice, or the families of those who serve, should ever be threatened for doing their job,' said Davidson. 'Our system depends on the courage of prosecutors, judges and law enforcement officers. Threats against them are attacks on the rule of law itself and cannot be tolerated.' According to court documents and Holmes's plea agreement, the threat arose after a man that Holmes claimed to know was convicted of capital murder for the killing of a police officer. On March 19, 2024, Holmes, who was an inmate serving a state prison sentence, sent a letter to the Mobile County District Attorney's Office, which prosecuted the capital murder case. The letter began, 'I am personally writing you to inform you we know where you live,' and went on to identify Holmes as a member of a known white supremacist group. Holmes threatened that the district attorney, the district attorney's family and the judge involved in the case would suffer 'a very horrible and painful death' in retaliation for the conviction and the pursuit of the death penalty against his alleged associate. More: New DOGE update removes four Alabama federal buildings from Wall of Receipts. What to know On March 22, 2024, agents interviewed Holmes. During the interview, Holmes admitted to writing the letter and said he had associates watching the district attorney, warning that the prosecutor had only hours to live. Security precautions had already been taken to protect the district attorney and his family. Holmes pleaded guilty to mailing the threatening communication on January 28. 'There is no place in our justice system for threats of violence – especially leveled at officers of the court,' said FBI acting special agent in charge Timothy J. O'Malley. 'The FBI is committed to ensuring those who serve justice can do so without fear and will hold offenders accountable.' The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Mobile Field Office investigated this case, with assistance from the United States Marshals Service and the Mobile County Sheriff's Office. Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Marty Roney at mroney@ This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Man gets five years in federal prison for threatening prosecutor
The Independent
23-04-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Memo to Musk: you can't rely on your dodgy DOGE accounting to fix troubled Tesla
America's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) isn't quite losing its king but Elon Musk has promised that his time commitment will drop 'significantly' from next month. It can hardly be a coincidence that Tesla, his flagship electronic carmaker, reported a 70 per cent fall in profits for the first quarter of its financial year. Deliveries declined by 13 per cent, revenues by 9 per cent. Those numbers were well short of Wall Street's forecasts. Musk's high profile work at DOGE is at least partly to blame. Tesla's brand has taken a battering as a result of his antics there. Being President Trump's BFF also goes down like a broken battery with much of the world and at least half of the US. But has it been worth it to the American taxpayer? Has Musk managed to reduce the nation's debt mountain? During the US election campaign, the Tesla boss boldly promised to cut at least $2tn (£1.5bn) from the federal budget. That figure has come down rapidly since Trump took office. Last month, Musk told Special Report with Bret Baier on Fox News that he was confident DOGE could unearth $1tn in savings. As things stand, it isn't even halfway there. The much ballyhooed ' Wall of Receipts ' quotes estimated savings of $160bn, made up of a 'combination of asset sales, contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions.' However, doubts have repeatedly been cast over the veracity of that number. Let's look at government contracts. I'm going to quote the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a free market think tank. It is not a place full of woolly woke liberal Trump haters. Nat Malkus, a senior fellow, recently conducted an analysis of savings from contracts cancelled by DOGE, dating from when the Wall's running total was at $140bn. Malkus used a $3.3bn US government contract with Family Endeavours Inc for the resettlement of 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children to illustrate why its numbers don't add up. The value of the potential contract was listed at $3.3bn by DOGE, with its savings coming in at $2.9bn. That is only a tiny fraction of America's $36.2tn national debt but it is still a big saving. A justified one? Many people would support the resettlement of unaccompanied refugee kids but is there any reason for it to cost $1.3m per child? Whisper it, but could Musk be onto something? Wait one moment. Malkus pointed out that the $3.3bn only represents how much could be spent over a number of years. These contracts have flexibility built in to cope with how much might be needed over time. However, that does not represent actual spending. The amount of money obligated to the contract came to a much smaller, and more realistic, $428m. The amount actually spent came to $283m. Those refugee kids are costing a lot less than the DOGE figures imply: subtract the obligated amount from the outlay and the savings come to just over $140m. Malkus went on to look at the total potential value of $45.6bn of DOGE's axed contracts. He found that their obligated value was $23.8bn while the outlay to date amounted to $14bn. The savings thus came to $10bn compared to the $18.9bn claimed by DOGE. Now consider the errors. The New York Times said DOGE's public ledger was 'riddled with mistakes,' a point picked up by Malkus who found a $3.8m contract listed at $38m, presumably as a result of a 'fat finger' when the data was input. He also pointed out that if you want to re-start the work paid for by these contracts, you would need to re-tender. The simpler, and cheaper, way of realising savings would be to tell federal agencies to cease further spending on these contracts. There's more. Some 46 per cent of the cancelled contracts yielded savings of zero, while the majority of the money realised came from the gutting of USAid: 40 per cent of contracts by number, 58 per cent by value and 73 per cent of savings. It is also worth considering the difference between 'gross' and 'net' because some of DOGE's 'savings' look set to cut off Uncle Sam's nose to spite his face. The Washington Post reported that last month the US Treasury Department and officials from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) were anticipating a tax revenue decrease of around 10 per cent when compared with the previous year in part because the latter's budget had been slashed. In dollar figures, that amounts to about $500bn, more than three times DOGE's already dubious figure. Even if you choose to discount the work of Malkus and others in picking apart DOGE's claims, the (reduced) target of $1tn is still only a drop in the ocean when set against the vast size of the US national debt. The most recent figures show American tax-payers shelled out $1.17tn in interest rate payments based on an average interest rate of 3.32 per cent. The US budget deficit in 2024 came to $1.8tn. So even if DOGE hits its target – doubtful – it will only halve that. Perhaps that's because it isn't actually looking at areas where real savings could be made. Oft quoted examples include social security and entitlements. The UK's left of centre Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who has controversially attacked those, is proving to be far more of a fiscal hawk than anyone in America's conservative government. Perhaps DOGE should hire her? Tesla cannot, of course, indulge in the sort of double counting, over-counting, fat finger errors and misstatements in DOGE's figures. The US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) would come down on the company like a ton of bricks if it founded so much as a whiff of evidence. One would hope Musk proves rather better at finding savings and efficiencies at his car maker than he has been at DOGE. Right now, it needs all the help it can get.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DOGE's private contract crackdown has eliminated more than 120 Deloitte contracts—more than twice the amount of any other consultancy
Major consulting firm has been hit hard by contract terminations carried out by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). According to an analysis by Fortune, DOGE eliminated more than 120 contracts with the consultancy worth more than $1 billion. Economists warn the trend threatens future revenues of tech and consulting juggernauts. As Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency continues its mass elimination of government contracts, no consultancy has been harder hit than Deloitte. DOGE has cut or modified at least 124 Deloitte contracts since the beginning of President Donald Trump's second term, Fortune found in an analysis of DOGE's 'Wall of Receipts.' The contracts were worth more than $1.16 billion, with Musk's advisory group claiming to have saved taxpayers about $371.8 million from their terminations. The largest eliminated contract was worth more than $51 million for IT services for the Department of Health and Human Services. Deloitte is one of at least 10 consulting firms with eliminated contracts. Comparatively, Booz Allen Hamilton had 61 contracts cut with an estimated $207.1 million 'saved'; Accenture had 30 cut contracts worth $240.2 million in claimed savings; and IBM had 10 contracts worth $34.3 million in savings eliminated, Business Insider reported, meaning Deloitte had more than twice as many contract cuts as any other consultancy. Though DOGE claims to have saved a total of $140 billion, not all of it is true savings, according to Bank of America. The advisory group has 'overstated' its savings by failing to account for new contracts and inflating the value of other cancelled contracts, according to the bank. Other contracts listed on the DOGE Wall of Receipts were cancelled before Trump took office or ended naturally, The New York Times reported. Still, DOGE's cuts represent real losses for government contractors. Deloitte, one of the big four consulting companies along with PwC, EY, and KPMG, reported $67.2 billion in revenue in fiscal 2024, with about 10% of it coming from government contracts. The mass contract cuts follow an order from the General Services Administration, which asked major consultancies to submit detailed plans identifying places to cut prices or eliminate contracts that aren't 'mission critical,' the Financial Times reported Monday, citing internal correspondence and an anonymous senior administrator. Some consultancies had a Monday deadline to submit a 'scorecard' to the administration, which must reportedly include a dollar amount. "This Administration is firmly of the view that America's private industry is our backbone and competitive advantage, however, that's not inconsistent with right-sizing spending, balancing the federal budget, and reducing our debt,' Josh Gruenbaum, GSA's federal acquisition service commissioner, told Fortune in a statement. He added that the administration would be open to seeking out new contracts with private industry partners 'who also take the deficit as seriously.' Deloitte did not respond to Fortune's request for comments. There have already been warning signs of the broader financial and economic impact of the widespread private sector contract terminations, part of the Trump administration's efforts to overhaul government systems through mass funding cuts. The government spent about $759 billion on contracts in fiscal 2023, according to the Government Accountability Office. Musk's own companies have received at least $20 billion from the federal government. 'It's a massive source of revenue for many different types of firms, not just government firms, but also private firms,' Abigail Blanco, an associate professor of economics at the University of Tampa, told Fortune. 'So there are lots of entities, private entities, who rely on—in whole, or in part—various government contracts or government funding to fulfill their primary objectives.' Business management consultancy Accenture reported last month that its Federal Services arm lost federal contracts as a result of DOGE's cuts. Federal Services made up about 8% of Accenture's global revenue last year, according to CEO Julie Spellman Sweet. According to the DOGE website, the advisory terminated at least 30 contracts worth about $240.2 million in claimed savings. 'As you know, the new administration has a clear goal to run the federal government more efficiently,' Sweet told investors in a recent earnings call. 'During this process, many new procurement actions have slowed, which is negatively impacting our sales and revenue.' Following the call, Accenture's shares plunged more than 7%. Workplace management software firm Oracle was another tech giant impacted by $580 million in cuts to the Department of Defense. Analysts fear that continued substantial contract cuts could mean bad news for revenues, particularly for companies like Booz Allen Hamilton, which works closely with the Defense Department. The Pentagon is responsible for more than half of the value of all government contracts. Booz Allen Hamilton gets about 98% of its revenue from government contracts. 'The defense industry is heavily reliant on federal spending, and budget reductions could affect future sales' of the consultancy, Wells Fargo equity analyst Matthew Akers told investors in a note last month. 'Government services contracts periodically come up for recompete, and any contract loss could materially affect results.' Despite some cuts, the Defense Department has been largely unaffected by DOGE's reviews, economics professor Blanco said, despite arguments that the department has contracts with inflated costs for products that underdeliver. According to Blanco, the broader contract cuts will likely lead to downstream effects that are difficult to recognize now. Companies impacted by these cuts will likely have to reorganize their labor force, including laying off employees they may have hired for certain projects funded through government contracts, she said. But more broadly, the breadth of terminated contracts creates a sense of uncertainty, Blanco argued. While markets try to understand the swath of recent economic changes—such as Trump's aggressive tariff plan—companies will likely batten down the hatches to focus on finding alternative sources of funding. This 'wait-and-see' approach can help firms stabilize themselves, but doesn't fuel confidence necessary for innovation and expansion. 'The way that we get economic growth is when people are doing things, and they're trying stuff, and they're expanding their businesses,' Blanco said. 'But adopting this wait-and-see kind of approach, it's stagnant.' This story was originally featured on
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DOGE's private contract crackdown has eliminated more than 120 Deloitte contracts—more than twice the amount of any other consultancy
Major consulting firm has been hit hard by contract terminations carried out by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). According to an analysis by Fortune, DOGE eliminated more than 120 contracts with the consultancy worth more than $1 billion. Economists warn the trend threatens future revenues of tech and consulting juggernauts. As Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency continues its mass elimination of government contracts, no consultancy has been harder hit than Deloitte. DOGE has cut or modified at least 124 Deloitte contracts since the beginning of President Donald Trump's second term, Fortune found in an analysis of DOGE's 'Wall of Receipts.' The contracts were worth more than $1.16 billion, with Musk's advisory group claiming to have saved taxpayers about $371.8 million from their terminations. The largest eliminated contract was worth more than $51 million for IT services for the Department of Health and Human Services. Deloitte is one of at least 10 consulting firms with eliminated contracts. Comparatively, Booz Allen Hamilton had 61 contracts cut with an estimated $207.1 million 'saved'; Accenture had 30 cut contracts worth $240.2 million in claimed savings; and IBM had 10 contracts worth $34.3 million in savings eliminated, Business Insider reported, meaning Deloitte had more than twice as many contract cuts as any other consultancy. Though DOGE claims to have saved a total of $140 billion, not all of it is true savings, according to Bank of America. The advisory group has 'overstated' its savings by failing to account for new contracts and inflating the value of other cancelled contracts, according to the bank. Other contracts listed on the DOGE Wall of Receipts were cancelled before Trump took office or ended naturally, The New York Times reported. Still, DOGE's cuts represent real losses for government contractors. Deloitte, one of the big four consulting companies along with PwC, EY, and KPMG, reported $67.2 billion in revenue in fiscal 2024, with about 10% of it coming from government contracts. The mass contract cuts follow an order from the General Services Administration, which asked major consultancies to submit detailed plans identifying places to cut prices or eliminate contracts that aren't 'mission critical,' the Financial Times reported Monday, citing internal correspondence and an anonymous senior administrator. Some consultancies had a Monday deadline to submit a 'scorecard' to the administration, which must reportedly include a dollar amount. "This Administration is firmly of the view that America's private industry is our backbone and competitive advantage, however, that's not inconsistent with right-sizing spending, balancing the federal budget, and reducing our debt,' Josh Gruenbaum, GSA's federal acquisition service commissioner, told Fortune in a statement. He added that the administration would be open to seeking out new contracts with private industry partners 'who also take the deficit as seriously.' Deloitte did not respond to Fortune's request for comments. There have already been warning signs of the broader financial and economic impact of the widespread private sector contract terminations, part of the Trump administration's efforts to overhaul government systems through mass funding cuts. The government spent about $759 billion on contracts in fiscal 2023, according to the Government Accountability Office. Musk's own companies have received at least $20 billion from the federal government. 'It's a massive source of revenue for many different types of firms, not just government firms, but also private firms,' Abigail Blanco, an associate professor of economics at the University of Tampa, told Fortune. 'So there are lots of entities, private entities, who rely on—in whole, or in part—various government contracts or government funding to fulfill their primary objectives.' Business management consultancy Accenture reported last month that its Federal Services arm lost federal contracts as a result of DOGE's cuts. Federal Services made up about 8% of Accenture's global revenue last year, according to CEO Julie Spellman Sweet. According to the DOGE website, the advisory terminated at least 30 contracts worth about $240.2 million in claimed savings. 'As you know, the new administration has a clear goal to run the federal government more efficiently,' Sweet told investors in a recent earnings call. 'During this process, many new procurement actions have slowed, which is negatively impacting our sales and revenue.' Following the call, Accenture's shares plunged more than 7%. Workplace management software firm Oracle was another tech giant impacted by $580 million in cuts to the Department of Defense. Analysts fear that continued substantial contract cuts could mean bad news for revenues, particularly for companies like Booz Allen Hamilton, which works closely with the Defense Department. The Pentagon is responsible for more than half of the value of all government contracts. Booz Allen Hamilton gets about 98% of its revenue from government contracts. 'The defense industry is heavily reliant on federal spending, and budget reductions could affect future sales' of the consultancy, Wells Fargo equity analyst Matthew Akers told investors in a note last month. 'Government services contracts periodically come up for recompete, and any contract loss could materially affect results.' Despite some cuts, the Defense Department has been largely unaffected by DOGE's reviews, economics professor Blanco said, despite arguments that the department has contracts with inflated costs for products that underdeliver. According to Blanco, the broader contract cuts will likely lead to downstream effects that are difficult to recognize now. Companies impacted by these cuts will likely have to reorganize their labor force, including laying off employees they may have hired for certain projects funded through government contracts, she said. But more broadly, the breadth of terminated contracts creates a sense of uncertainty, Blanco argued. While markets try to understand the swath of recent economic changes—such as Trump's aggressive tariff plan—companies will likely batten down the hatches to focus on finding alternative sources of funding. This 'wait-and-see' approach can help firms stabilize themselves, but doesn't fuel confidence necessary for innovation and expansion. 'The way that we get economic growth is when people are doing things, and they're trying stuff, and they're expanding their businesses,' Blanco said. 'But adopting this wait-and-see kind of approach, it's stagnant.' This story was originally featured on Sign in to access your portfolio
