On Wednesday’s “PBS NewsHour,” David Walker, who served as head of the Government Accountability Office from 1998 to 2008, stated that the Department of Government Efficiency is doing stuff that “needs to be done,” but there should be more transparency by the department and doing so will “improve their effectiveness, it’ll improve their credibility, and it’ll enhance public trust.”
Walker began by saying, “Well, what they’re doing is they’re really doing a review of information systems and transactions. They’re not doing an audit. And they’re identifying areas that could be fraud, waste, abuse, or mismanagement. In most cases, it’s arguably waste and mismanagement, rather than necessarily illegal or fraudulent activity. And what they’re demonstrating is that the federal government has thousands of outdated, non-integrated information systems and totally inadequate controls. And that’s one of the reasons that you’re seeing some of these sensational items pop up.”
Later, co-host Amna Nawaz asked, “David, when you look at the overall mission here to cut spending, it clearly has a lot of support. But, effectively, what you have is a private, unelected billionaire with numerous potential conflicts of interest here in Elon Musk, who has extraordinary access and power to government systems and decision-making here, in some case[s], usurping even congressional authority, right? Talking about halting congressionally-appropriated funds in some cases. When you look at the way in which they’re going about their work, does the end justify these means?”
Walker responded, “What they’re doing needs to be done, but, as I said before, they need to be much more transparent with regard to what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, who’s doing it, and what type of background checks and conflict of interest checks these people have been subject to. I think, if that ends up happening, it’ll improve their effectiveness, it’ll improve their credibility, and it’ll enhance public trust. But, understand this: DOGE is just the first step in a multi-step process. DOGE can help [make] a modest down payment in our deficit situation. But we’re spending 5.5 billion a day more than we’re taking in. And, ultimately, the heavy lifting, the real big changes are going to have to be done through legislation and a constitutional amendment.” He also said that he isn’t sure what criteria DOGE used for its reduction in the USAID workforce.
Walker also stated that “whoever advised the president to be able to fire all those inspectors general in wholesale and without proper notification to Congress didn’t do the country a favor or the president a favor. It was inappropriate. It was illegal. And, frankly, GAO and the [inspectors general] should be working in partnership with DOGE.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
