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Tthe transactions were reportedly missing the Treasury Account Symbol, an identification code that connects a Treasury payment to a budget line item
Elon Musk At DOGE Office | File Image/X
The US Department of Government Efficiency led by tech billionaire Elon Musk has said that some $4.7 trillion in payments from the Treasury Department were missing a critical tracking code, making tracing the transactions “almost impossible.”
According to DOGE, the transactions were reportedly missing the Treasury Account Symbol (TAS), an identification code that connects a Treasury payment to a budget line item, describing the use of this code as a “standard financial process.”
The Treasury Access Symbol (TAS) is an identification code linking a Treasury payment to a budget line item (standard financial process).In the Federal Government, the TAS field was optional for ~$4.7 Trillion in payments and was often left blank, making traceability almost…
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) February 17, 2025
Taking to social media platform X, the US government wing wrote, “In the Federal Government, the TAS field was optional for ~$4.7 Trillion in payments and was often left blank, making traceability almost impossible.”
The project led by Elon Musk to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government announced that, following this discovery, the use of the TAS code is now mandatory. Musk called the change a “major improvement in Treasury payment integrity.”
“This was a combined effort of (DOGE, Treasury, and the Federal Reserve),” Musk wrote on X. “Great work by all.”
The Treasury Department, which manages trillions of dollars in government payments annually, was one of the first agencies to collaborate with DOGE after President Trump’s inauguration. DOGE staff at Treasury have been granted access to the department’s sensitive payment systems to help eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse.
“This is not just a roaming group… This is a methodical effort that will result in significant savings,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said about DOGE during a Bloomberg TV interview last week.
DOGE recently suggested “eliminating paper checks” at Treasury, claiming it could save taxpayers “at least $750 million annually.”
The proposal pointed out that the Treasury Department is required to maintain “a physical lockbox” to collect the over 100 million checks it processes each year, which costs approximately $2.40 per check.
According to DOGE, in fiscal year 2023, around $25 billion in tax refunds were either delayed or lost due to returned or expired checks.
- Location :
Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)
