Former DOGE engineer says federal waste and fraud were 'relatively nonexistent'

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NPR

Updated June 5, 202510:31 AM ET


A former employee of the Department of Government Efficiency says that he found that the federal waste, fraud and abuse that his agency was supposed to uncover were "relatively nonexistent" during his short time embedded within the Department of Veterans Affairs. "I personally was pretty surprised, actually, at how efficient the government was," Sahil Lavingia told NPR's Juana Summers.

Lavingia was a successful software developer and the founder of Gumroad, a platform for online sales, when he joined DOGE in March. Lavingia said he had previously sought to work for the U.S. Digital Service, the technology unit that was renamed and restructured by the Trump administration. He told NPR that he just wanted to make government websites easier for citizens to use and didn't really care which presidential administration he was working for, despite protests from his friends and family.

Lavingia said the overall message at DOGE was transparency and a vibe of "ask for forgiveness, not permission." So, when a blogger asked for an interview about Gumroad, he agreed. And when asked, he talked about his work at DOGE, including how little inefficiency he saw compared to what he was expecting.

"Elon [Musk] was pretty clear about how he wanted DOGE to be maximally transparent," Lavingia said. "That's something he said a lot in private. And publicly. And so I thought, OK, cool, I'll take him at his word. I will be transparent." Shortly after the interview was published online, Lavingia got an email. Just 55 days into his work at DOGE, his access had been revoked.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2025/06/02/nx-s1-5417994/former-doge-engineer-shares-his-experience-working-for-the-cost-cutting-unit

[underpants]

1. Thanks. I heard this teased on NPR but wasn't in the car when it was on

[Lovie777]

2. A government run right by a real and sane president, President Biden..............

and his administration. Hallelujah! Amen!

Now look what shambles the GQP are doing. And I think the job reports by the corrupt GQPs are undermining the true ugly numbers.

[CousinIT]

3. We knew that. It was all a pretense to justify destroying OUR government and OUR gov't services.

Because Republicans don't believe in government. They have no use for government or government services, and they don't want any money spent on it. None.

The government only gets in the way of their amassing money, power, and control, and serving billionaires.

They don't know how to run a government (except into the ground). They aren't interested in governing.

That's why they want AI to run the government instead. Republicans don't know how. They don't care about it. And it's just an obstacle to them.

[maxsolomon]

4. Fuck this guy.

It's the GQP propaganda machine that's been pounding this "Waste Fraud and Abuse" lie over and over. I heard dipshit Ron Johnson repeating it on NPR last night.

What rock was he under that he didn't know they were bullshitters?

Waste Fraud and Abuse is what they label programs they don't like ideologically.

[yardwork]

5. It's not efficient anymore, thanks to you guys!

[ThoughtCriminal]

6. They didn't even peak at the Pentagon

Where there is almost certainly train-0loads of fraud and inefficiency,

But also, their methodology was flawed from the start. They needed accountants, not hackers.

[travelingthrulife]

7. I thought I remember them being at the Pentagon, although Whiskey Pete

might be doing his own dismantling.

[ThoughtCriminal]

8. Kaptain Ketamine went there in March

For an hour long meeting where he was briefed about U.S. secret war plans for China.