The keen eyes of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have uncovered several federal agencies paying millions of dollars on annual licenses for software that has never been used.
DOGE saved over $5 million annually after finding and cancelling these unused licenses, Fox News reported on Friday, citing an X post in which the Department explained how the agencies in question were wasting the money.
“Agencies often have more software licenses than employees, and the licenses are often idle (i.e. paid for, but not installed on any computer). These audits have been continuously run since first posted in February,” DOGE said.
“Most recently: -IRS had 3000 Visio licenses, using only 25. The remaining 99% were cut. -DOL cut 68% of unused ‘project planning’ software licenses. -SEC was only using 22% of their remote desktop software; the 78% was cut. These 3 changes alone, a small portion of the total, saved > $5M/year,” the department noted:
Elon Musk joined President Donald Trump’s administration to lead DOGE in an effort to find and root out waste, fraud, and abuse in Washington, DC, per Breitbart News. However, the Tesla and SpaceX founder is now officially departing his government role.
Musk wrote in a social media post, “As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending. The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
According to the DOGE website, the department estimates it has so far saved $175 billion.
During a recent appearance on Fox News’ “Hannity,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) praised Musk for his work as an entrepreneur and for American citizens, Breitbart News reported on Thursday.
“I think the American people ought to be saying to Elon, ‘thank you, thank you, thank you.’ He came and spent four months working for the American people, free of charge, didn’t collect a salary, made nothing. He rooted out massive waste, fraud, and abuse, and he did so at enormous cost to himself,” he said.
“You look at his stockholdings, his stockholdings dropped tens of billions of dollars. It was a personal sacrifice and the death threats that were directed against him were massive. I think Elon is an extraordinary entrepreneur, an extraordinary business leader,” Cruz stated.
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