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Billionaire Elon Musk turned a spotlight on ineffective government computers and software as he revealed his “preferred title” in President-elect Donald Trump’s new administration.

The newly named co-leader of the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) took to social media to note the bad shape of IT infrastructure in the federal government and pointed to himself as a “Volunteer IT Consultant.”

“The Federal government computers & software are in such bad shape that they often cannot verify that payments are not fraud, waste or abuse!” the Tesla and SpaceX CEO wrote.

“That’s why the government can’t pass basic audits. They often LITERALLY don’t know where your tax dollars went. It’s insane,” he added.

“My preferred title in the new administration is Volunteer IT Consultant. Need to fix the IT infrastructure in order to make government work,” wrote Musk, who will be tackling government waste along with his DOGE partner, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

“This is a grind & hardly glorious, but we can’t make government efficient & fix the deficit if the computers don’t work,” he noted.

The tech billionaire noted in response to one comment that “The government is actually massively overpaying for software that doesn’t work.”

“Some of it is intentional. Most of it is just a natural consequence of a vast bureaucracy with no accountability for results,” he said in another response. “If it were mostly intentional, it would be easy to reverse.”

Musk also highlighted a “mind-blowing” report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office published May 2023 on Information Technology.

“In June 2019, GAO identified 10 critical federal IT legacy systems (i.e., systems that are outdated or obsolete) that were most in need of modernization. These legacy systems provided vital support to agencies’ missions. According to the agencies, these legacy systems ranged from about 8 to 51 years old and collectively cost about $337 million annually to operate and maintain,” the report noted.

The report found that “several of the legacy systems were operating with known security vulnerabilities and unsupported hardware and software” and many of the agencies responsible for the legacy systems had no documented plans for updates.

Frieda Powers
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