DOGE'S turn for scrutiny: Government agency demands incident reports on misuse

Elon Musks’ Department of Government Efficiency is getting its own moment under the microscope, reports WIRED.

Records show the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has launched a probe of DOGE, requesting “comprehensive information from the agencies in question, including incident reports on ‘potential or actual misuse of agency systems or data’ and documentation of policies and procedures relating to systems DOGE operatives have accessed, as well as documentation of policies for the agency's risk assessments, audit logs, insider threat programs, and more.”

The GAO is an independent auditing, research and investigative agency for Congress.

Musk has sent DOGE operatives, most with no experience with government auditing, to ransack federal agencies of funding and employees. Additionally, Trump appointed administrators are working with DOGE teams to strip their own departments of resources, laying off hundreds of employees.

Democrats have vocally opposed such efforts with what critics call low-energy speeches and internet dance scenes, but WIRED reports the GAO audit is likely “one of the first real signs of possible accountability and oversight.”

“GAO has received requests to review actions taken by DOGE across multiple agencies,” GAO spokesperson Sarah Kaczmarek told WIRED. “The first thing GAO does as any work begins is to determine the full scope of what we will cover and the methodology to be used. Until that is done, we cannot provide any additional details or estimates on when the work will be completed.”

Information obtained by WIRED shows the GAO is focused on investigating safeguards in place serving “confidentiality, integrity, and availability of agency systems and information” according to files.

Read the WIRED story here.