ELON MUSK Discovers $4.7 trillion in Treasury payments were missing critical code: ‘Traceability almost impossible’

• DOGE discovers missing code in Treasury Payments, Making Them Hard to Trace.
• Restores TAS code as mandatory in payments

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) revealed on Monday that around $4.7 trillion in payments from the U.S. Treasury were missing a key tracking code, making it nearly impossible to trace where the money went. [earn]

The missing code, known as the Treasury Account Symbol (TAS), is supposed to link each payment to a specific budget category. According to DOGE, using this code is a standard financial practice, yet it was frequently left out.

“In the Federal Government, the TAS field was optional for ~$4.7 Trillion in payments and was often left blank, making traceability almost impossible,” DOGE said in a post on X.

As a response, DOGE—an initiative led by Elon Musk to cut down on waste, fraud, and abuse in the government—has now made the use of the TAS code mandatory.

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“As of Saturday, this is now a required field, increasing insight into where money is actually going,” DOGE said, thanking the Treasury Department for its “great work” in implementing the change.

Elon Musk called this a “major improvement in Treasury payment integrity.”

“This was a combined effort of [DOGE, Treasury, and the Federal Reserve],” Musk posted on X. “Nice work by all.”

DOGE’s Push for Efficiency at Treasury

The Treasury Department handles trillions of dollars in government payments every year and was one of the first agencies DOGE focused on after President Trump took office. DOGE staff at Treasury have been granted access to the department’s highly sensitive payment systems to help identify waste, fraud, and inefficiencies. [earn]

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent praised the effort during a recent Bloomberg TV interview.

“This is not some roving band … This is methodical, and it is going to yield big savings,” he said.

One of DOGE’s latest proposals is to get rid of paper checks at Treasury, arguing that doing so could save taxpayers at least $750 million per year.

Treasury currently processes over 100 million checks annually, which requires maintaining a physical lockbox to collect them. According to DOGE, this costs about $2.40 per check to manage.

In fiscal year 2023, nearly $25 billion in tax refunds were either delayed or lost due to returned or expired checks, highlighting the inefficiencies in the system. [earn]

DOGE’s reforms aim to streamline financial processes, ensuring taxpayer money is handled more efficiently and transparently.

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