DOGE deactivates more than 500,000 government-issued credit cards

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, has deactivated over half a million government-issued credit cards that are "unused or unneeded," according to a notice on X.

The effort to reduce fraud and cut federal spending marks the start of a wide-ranging efficiency drive, now impacting over 30 federal agencies, as promised by President Donald Trump in his pledge to end the government's wasteful spending of taxpayer money.

"The unused or unnecessary credit card audit program has been expanded to 32 agencies. After 10 weeks, more than 500,000 cards have been deactivated," reads the notice shared by DOGE.

The Department is targeting 4.6 million active cards and accounts across various federal agencies. In the last fiscal year, these accounts collectively spent $39.7 billion on over 90 million transactions.

Statistical reports show that the General Services Administration's (GSA) SmartPay credit system discovered a multibillion-dollar increase in the total amount of money deposited on the cards, along with a significant rise in the number of transactions in recent years.

Total spending in FY 2022 reached $32.8 billion, marking an increase of nearly $7 billion in just two years. This amount was spent across approximately 78.5 million transactions, a figure that is expected to rise by millions in 2024.

DOGE claims that there is still a lot of work to be done on such an audit.