Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency discovered $4.7 trillion in United States Treasury payments on an untraceable budget line.

The Treasury Department announced on Monday that a vital identifier, the Treasury Access Symbol, was absent from several payments made by the agency. This symbol is used to indicate the specific account to which the money is connected.

‘In the federal government, the TAS field was optional for about $4.7 trillion in payments and was often left blank, making traceability almost impossible,’ DOGE posted on X.

‘As of Saturday, this is now a required field, increasing insight into where money is actually going.’

The account went on to thank the US Treasury for its help in identifying the optional field.

The Treasury Department, which fields trillions of dollars worth of government payments every year was one of the first departments DOGE staffers gained access to. 

They have been granted entry to the department’s highly-sensitive payment systems, and Musk is now requesting access to a classified IRS system that contains the personal financial records of millions of Americans.

The request, which is reportedly under review, would grant DOGE sweeping access to IRS ‘systems, property, and datasets’ through a memorandum of understanding. 

Elon Musk ‘s Department of Government Efficiency discovered $4.7 trillion in United States Treasury payments on an untraceable budget line

The Treasury Department, which fields trillions of dollars wort of government payments every year was one of the first departments DOGE staffers gained access to

Of particular concern is DOGE’s potential access to the Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS) – a heavily protected database used by IRS employees to review taxpayer records, update information, and issue official notices.

Given the system’s ability to retrieve personal identification numbers, bank account details, and other sensitive financial data, IRS officials have reportedly expressed deep reservations.

The report notes that taxpayers whose information is wrongfully reviewed or disclosed may be entitled to financial damages, underscoring the severity of the potential risk posed by DOGE’s request.

Critics see the request as an alarming overreach by a department that has already faced scrutiny for its broad ambitions. 

Experts have warned that allowing political appointees access to IRS databases is ‘highly unusual,’ raising concerns about potential misuse of taxpayer data.

Nina Olson, a former taxpayer advocate, did not mince words when addressing the potential consequences of DOGE’s request. 

‘The information that the IRS has is incredibly personal,’ she told The Post. 

DOGE announced on Monday that it is now requiring agencies to fill out the Treasury Access Symbol on all transactions

‘Someone with access to it could use it and make it public in a way, or do something with it, or share it with someone else who shares it with someone else, and your rights get violated.’

A senior Trump administration official, though, defended the move, stating that DOGE’s mission is to ‘eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse, and improve government performance to better serve the people.’ 

The official further insisted that the request is being conducted ‘legally and with the appropriate security clearances.’

Amid the debate over Musk’s authority, DOGE has started to purge the Federal Aviation Administration, with emails sent to probationary workers late Friday night.

Hundreds have also received notice that their employment was terminated. 

Newly confirmed Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner also announced last week that he would be working with DOGE to set up a task force within the agency.

He posted a video on his X account on Thursday announcing the task force would be ‘very detailed and deliberate about every dollar spent in serving tribal, rural and urban communities across America.’ 

It would comprise HUD employees and is intended to ‘examine how to best maximize the agency’s budget and ensure all programs, processes and personnel are working together to advance the purpose of the department,’ according to a press release. 

Critics see the request as an alarming overreach by a department that has already faced scrutiny for its broad ambitions 

Of particular concern is DOGE’s potential access to the Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS) – a heavily protected database used by IRS employees to review taxpayer records, update information, and issue official notices

In Turner’s video message on Thursday, he said that the task force recovered an additional $260 million in savings, after Musk said that $1.9 billion of misplaced funds had been recovered from the department.

The DOGE head has also claimed that his department uncovered millions of dead Americans still eligible for social security payments.

He posted a chart on X showing that there are more than 20 million Americans listed over the age of 100, including 3.9 million in the 130-139 range, more than 3.5 million aged 140-149 and more than 1.3 million in the range 150-159. There is even an ‘alive’ citizen aged over 360, according to the records.

The billionaire Tesla boss wrote: ‘According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE! Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security.’

It is unclear how many of these payments were distributed due to fraud or mistakes made by the agency failing to confirm the age and eligibility of beneficiaries – including if they are alive or not.

But DOGE vowed it is now ‘looking into this.’

DOGE reports that it has saved taxpayers about $55 billion since the department was formed by President Donald Trump’s executive order 

In the meantime, DOGE reports that it has saved taxpayers about $55 billion since the department was formed by President Donald Trump’s executive order.

The savings are a combination of ‘fraud detection/deletion, contract/lease cancelations, contract/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancelations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes and regulatory savings,’ the new DOGE.com Savings page says.  

‘We are working to upload all of this data in a digestible and fully transparent manner with clear assumptions, consistent with applicable rules and regulations,’ the site says.

DOGE added that it will update the data twice per week until it can eventually be updated in real time.