The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) revealed Monday that approximately $4.7 trillion in payments from the U.S. Treasury were missing a key tracking code, making it nearly impossible to trace these transactions.
According to DOGE, the missing identifier—known as the Treasury Account Symbol (TAS)—is a crucial code that links government payments to specific budget items. The agency described its use as a “standard financial practice.”
“In the federal government, the TAS field was optional for about $4.7 trillion in payments and was frequently left blank, making traceability nearly impossible,” DOGE stated in a post on X.
The initiative, spearheaded by Elon Musk to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government, has now made the use of TAS codes mandatory moving forward.
Musk praised the policy shift, calling it a “major improvement in Treasury payment integrity.”
“This was a collaborative effort between DOGE, the Treasury Department, and the Federal Reserve,” Musk tweeted. “Great job by all involved.”
Since its inception, DOGE has embedded itself in various federal agencies, with the Treasury Department being one of the first. The department processes trillions of dollars in government payments annually, making it a prime focus for efficiency reforms.
DOGE staffers have been granted access to Treasury’s highly sensitive payment systems to help identify and eliminate wasteful spending.
“This isn’t just some random effort—it’s a methodical approach that will lead to significant savings,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said during a recent interview with Bloomberg TV.
One of DOGE’s latest proposals is to eliminate paper checks at the Treasury Department, a move they estimate could save taxpayers at least $750 million per year.
Currently, the department processes over 100 million paper checks annually, requiring a physical lockbox to store them—a system that costs about $2.40 per check to maintain.
In fiscal year 2023 alone, roughly $25 billion in tax refunds were delayed or lost due to returned or expired checks, according to DOGE.
