Story by Gabriela León
The Government Efficiency Department (DOGE) reported that it detected $4.7 trillion in U.S. Treasury payments that cannot be tracked due to the lack of a key tracking code. This finding raises concerns about transparency and the management of public funds.
The advisory group led by Elon Musk, tasked with reducing bureaucracy and overseeing federal spending, discovered that many transactions lacked the Treasury Access Symbol (TAS), an essential code for classifying all government financial operations. This code allows payments to be tracked and ensures that funds are used as intended.
However, DOGE explained on the platform X that, in many cases, this code was not mandatory, leading to a lack of registration in thousands of transactions. As a result, around $4.7 trillion in payments lack this identifier, making tracking difficult and creating uncertainty about where the money went.
What Does This Finding Mean for U.S. Citizens?
This discovery suggests that nearly 70% of the federal spending for the 2024 fiscal year, which amounted to $6.75 trillion, may not be fully accounted for. For the 2025 fiscal year, the government has already spent more than $2.4 trillion, according to Treasury reports. This raises concerns about how public funds are managed and whether there are risks of fraud, misappropriation, or inefficiency.
Following the discovery, the use of the TAS code became a mandatory requirement for all Treasury transactions to improve financial transparency. Musk praised this change, stating that it will enable “significant improvements in Treasury payment integrity.”
Reactions and Possible Political Implications
Democratic Representative Mark Pocan expressed concern that these untraceable payments coincide with the $4.5 trillion in deficits generated by tax cuts pushed by the Republican-controlled House Budget Committee. Pocan suggested that this could be an attempt to fund tax cuts for the wealthy at the expense of social programs, calling it “corruption.”
Meanwhile, DOGE’s access to the Treasury payment system has raised concerns in Congress, particularly among Democrats, who warn that the organization is also seeking confidential taxpayer information from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This could compromise taxpayer data and spark controversy over privacy and the security of financial information.
Last week, Gavin Kliger, a 25-year-old senior DOGE official, visited the IRS offices in Washington, D.C., to assess their systems. He is expected to serve as a senior advisor to the interim IRS commissioner, providing engineering assistance and guidance on modernizing IT systems.