The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is working to “simplify” the federal government’s credit card program — which spent nearly $40 billion in Fiscal Year 2024 — announcing that they will “report back” in one week after working to “reduce admin costs.”
The U.S. government currently has about 4.6 million “active credit cards/accounts,” which spent the $39.7 billion in more than 90 million transactions in the last fiscal year, DOGE reported Tuesday:
“DOGE is working w/ the agencies to simplify the program and reduce admin costs — we will report back in 1 week,” the department, led by tech mogul Elon Musk, said on X.
The General Services Administration (GSA) SmartPay credit system has seen a multibillion-dollar rise in the total amount of money spent on the cards, as well as a dramatic surge in the total number of transactions in the last few years, recent statistics reports show.
The FY2022 total spent was $32.8 billion, displaying a nearly $7 billion dollar jump in just two years. The FY2022 figure was spent in just about 78.5 million transactions, compared to the more than 90 million in FY2024.
WATCH — Trump Considering Giving 20 Percent of DOGE Savings Back to Americans:
GSA SmartPay provides “payment solution services to more than 250 federal agencies/organizations and Native American tribal governments,” the program’s website states.
Among the top spenders are the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA).
A recent DOD inspector general report published last month revealed the military’s Government Travel Charge Card (GTCC) program did not “effectively” follow protocol to “identify misuse, abuse, or potential fraud.”
The audit found that a staggering 12 percent of credit card purchases on government-issued cards “may have violated the Pentagon’s spending policies in 2023,” finding at least 11,000 transactions totaling more than $500,000 made at casino ATMs, mobile applications stores, bars, and nightclubs during holidays and sporting events.
“Until the Government Travel Charge Card program is compliant with regulations and the DoD implements an effective oversight process, there will be missed opportunities to identify and mitigate misuse, abuse, and potential fraud,” said former DOD Inspector General Robert Storch, who was fired by President Donald Trump days later. “The DoD must take steps to ensure adherence to internal controls to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars.”
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