A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found it could not determine whether Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) personnel completed required ethics and records management training or filed required financial disclosures because the Executive Office of the President (EOP) and 10 executive agencies did not provide all requested records.
President Donald Trump established DOGE through a Jan. 20, 2025, executive order that renamed the U.S. Digital Service as the U.S. DOGE Service (USDS) within the EOP and created a temporary organization to carry out DOGE initiatives across the executive branch.
GAO identified 206 individuals who held DOGE positions within the EOP between Jan. 20, 2025, and Jan. 31, 2026. Of those, 27 were identified as special government employees (SGEs).
According to the report, SGEs may have substantial financial interests outside the federal government that can conflict with their federal responsibilities. Federal ethics requirements, including training and financial disclosure requirements, are intended to help identify and mitigate potential conflicts of interest.
GAO said EOP officials told auditors that DOGE personnel receive the same ethics and records management training as other EOP employees.
“However, EOP did not respond to GAO’s requests for access to training records and financial disclosures for DOGE personnel,” the report states. “As a result, GAO could not determine all DOGE personnel who received training or completed financial disclosures with EOP.”
GAO also sought information from 25 executive agencies where DOGE personnel may have served. Nine agencies provided records covering 64 DOGE personnel, while six agencies reported they had no personnel meeting GAO’s review criteria. However, 10 agencies either did not provide the requested information or failed to do so in time for GAO’s review.
Based on the records it received, GAO found that 49 personnel completed ethics training, 18 completed records management training, and 38 filed financial disclosures at those agencies. But because records from the EOP and 10 agencies were incomplete or unavailable, GAO said it could not determine overall compliance.
The report also highlighted questions about ethics oversight for DOGE personnel.
According to GAO, officials from the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) said the agency oversees executive branch ethics programs rather than monitoring individual employees’ compliance.
Yet, according to GAO, OGE officials said, “their office has not reviewed an EOP ethics program since 2023 and has no plans to review USDS’s program in the next 4 years because the temporary organization within USDS terminated on July 4, 2026.”
GAO acknowledged that the temporary organization had expired but noted that the executive order did not eliminate the broader USDS within the EOP. As a result, GAO said, the organization and personnel at executive agencies could continue supporting DOGE initiatives even after the temporary entity ended.