Efficiency Office Doge – conflicts of interest? Musk -monitors themselves

If Musk encounters contracts and payments where there can be conflicts of interest, he will stay outside, said presidential spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday (local time) in Washington. US President Donald Trump has commissioned Musk to reduce government spending.

Musk is, among other things, the head of the manufacturer of the electric car Tesla and the Space Company SpaceX. Tesla is in the sights of various studies by the NHTSA Traffic Safety Authority (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) and SpaceX Start Rakettes for the US Government, including for the Ministry of Defense. The Aviation Supervision FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) also repeated SpaceX starts after problems.

Musk should lower the costs of the state
For Musk’s public activity, a body called doge (Department of Government Efficiency) was founded with a handful of employees. Musk received the official status of a “special government officer”. In this way he has to work no more than 130 days in a period of 365 days.

“Special government employees” should also not be involved in matters that influence their own financial interests. Leavitt was therefore asked on Wednesday during the daily media briefing how the White House wanted to guarantee this.

Surprised reactions
Her answer that Musk is responsible is quite unusual. “I don’t know any other matter, nowhere in which a person can decide for himself whether there is a conflict of interest,” said expert Donald Kettl, a former professor of the University of Maryland, the Bloomberg Financial Service. In itself this is already a conflict of interest. Leavitt said that Musk is complying with all the appropriate laws.

In the meantime, the CFO of the US Federal Agency for Personnel Administration, Eria Roach, has resigned. A reporter from the Omroep ABC reports on the online platform X, which also belongs to Musk, who quotes the case, reports that she was known for this. Millions of billionaire at Doge Namur Recently control of the OPM (Office of Personnel Management)-the Personnel Authority of the US Government.

Struggle for access to payment systems
The Musk office is also in conflict with the American civil servant: on its urge, the Doge access to an important payment system of the US Department of Finance was initially limited to two people. The US Department of Finance and trade unions, which represented government officials, agreed to this Regulation for a court in Washington. The procedure for the lawsuit submitted by the trade unions continues.

In the Ministry of Finance, DOGE employees received access to a central system, thereby handling government payments. Trade unions argued in the application that this was illegal and mainly violates data protection rules. Payments to government employees and pensioners are also treated by the system. In the agreement before the court it was said separately that the two doge representatives only look at the payments, but could not make changes.