The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) - an Elon Musk-led advisory group under the new Trump administration - has now got access to the federal payment system, the New York Times reported citing people familiar with the change.
The move will help Musk and his team - which has been tasked by President Donald Trump to carry out cuts to the US government - to monitor and potentially limit government spending.
The development comes amid reports of David Lebryk, the top-ranking career US Treasury Department official, resigning following a clash with allies of Musk after they asked for access to payment systems.
The Musk allies who have been granted access to the payment system were made Treasury employees, passed government background checks and obtained the necessary security clearances, the NYT report said.
They, however, are yet to gain operational capabilities and no government payments have been blocked, the report said.
Earlier Saturday, Musk said the DOGE team had discovered that payment approval officers at the Treasury were "instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups".
"They literally never denied a payment in their entire career. Not even once," the billionaire posted on X.
The @DOGE team discovered, among other things, that payment approval officers at Treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 1, 2025
They literally never denied a payment in their entire career.
Not even once. https://t.co/kInoGWdw4C
Trump and Musk have claimed that $2 trillion could potentially be saved by slashing federal government spending.
The US President had also tapped billionaire entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to head DOGE alongside Musk but he decided to step aside and run instead for governor of Ohio.
Since taking office on January 20, Trump has fired and sidelined hundreds of civil servants in his first steps toward downsizing the bureaucracy.
Musk Aides Locking Federal Workers Out Of Computer Systems
Elon Musk's aides charged with running the US government human resources agency have locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees, Reuters reported this week, citing two agency officials.
Musk has been trying to install allies at the agency known as the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
The two officials said some senior career employees at OPM have had their access revoked to some of the department's data systems.
The officials said the systems include a vast database called Enterprise Human Resources Integration, which contains dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades and length of service of government workers.
"We have no visibility into what they are doing with the computer and data systems," one of the officials said. "That is creating great concern. There is no oversight. It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications."
(With agency inputs)
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