The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) revealed Monday that approximately $4.7 trillion in Treasury Department payments were missing a crucial tracking code, making it almost impossible to trace the transactions.
According to DOGE, the payments lacked the Treasury Account Symbol (TAS), an identification code that links transactions to specific budget line items. The agency described the TAS as a “standard financial process” and noted that its absence severely hindered traceability.
“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 stated in an X post.
In response to the discovery, the Elon Musk-led initiative to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government has made the use of TAS mandatory.
“As of Saturday, this is now a required field, increasing insight into where money is actually going,” DOGE announced, thanking the Treasury Department for its “great work” in implementing the change.
“This was a combined effort of [DOGE, Treasury, and the Federal Reserve],” Musk tweeted. “Nice work by all.”
