Donald Trump has directed US government agencies to build ‘centralised tech systems’ to ‘record every payment’ made via grants and contracts.
The presidential instruction was made through an executive order with a stated aim of ‘commenc[ing] a transformation in federal spending on contracts, grants, and loans to ensure government spending is transparent and government employees are accountable to the American public.’
The order, which was published this week (26 February), arrives in the slipstream of one of Trump’s most prominent first-day executive orders, which established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). DOGE, led by billionaire Trump supporter Elon Musk, is tasked with ‘modernising federal technology and software to maximise governmental efficiency and productivity’.
It instructs agencies to ‘immediately review all contracts and grants for waste, fraud and abuse’ and states that government payments and travel expenses ‘must be justified and made publicly available where possible’. Agency heads will work with DOGE team leads employed by their agencies to ‘review and terminate all unnecessary contracts’, the White House says.
Titled ‘Implementing the President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” Cost Efficiency Initiative’, the order is the latest presidential action seeking to increase scrutiny of, and reduce, federal spending. It instructs DOGE team leads embedded in agencies to provide ‘monthly informational reports on contracting activities’, including payment and travel justifications.
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‘Seamlessly record every payment’
The executive order’s third section, which is titled ‘Cutting Costs to Save Taxpayers Money’, sets out the main presidential instructions.
In its first sub-section, which is titled ‘Contract and Grant Justification’, the order instructs that ‘each agency head shall, with assistance as requested from the agency’s DOGE team lead, build a centralised technological system within the agency to seamlessly record every payment issued by the agency pursuant to each of the agency’s covered contracts and grants, along with a brief, written justification for each payment submitted by the agency employee who approved the payment.’
‘This system shall include a mechanism for the agency head to pause and rapidly review any payment for which the approving employee has not submitted a brief, written justification within the technological system,’ the order states.
In a sub-section titled ‘Review of Covered Contracts and Grants’, each agency head, in consultation with the agency’s DOGE lead, is instructed to review ‘all existing covered contracts and grants and, where appropriate and consistent with applicable law, terminate or modify (including through renegotiation) such covered contracts and grants to reduce overall federal spending or reallocate spending to promote efficiency and advance the policies of my [Trump’s] administration.’
Agency heads are ordered to prioritise reviewing funds disbursed under covered contracts and grants to ‘educational institutions and foreign entities for waste, fraud and abuse’. Each agency head is asked complete this within 30 days.
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‘Minimal safeguards historically’
‘Covered contracts and grants’ is defined in the order as meaning ‘discretionary spending through federal contracts, grants, loans and related instruments’ and excluding ‘direct assistance to individuals; expenditures related to immigration enforcement, law enforcement, the military, public safety, and the intelligence community; and other critical, acute or emergency spending, as determined by the relevant agency head.’
A later sub-section of the executive order titled ‘Non-Essential Travel Justification’ similarly askseach agency head to ‘build a technological system within each agency that centrally records approval for federally funded travel for conferences and other non-essential purposes.’
Further sub-sections of the order relate to areas such as federal government property assets.
The federal government committed about $759 billion (about £603 billion) on contracts in fiscal year 2023, according to a ‘fact sheet’ published by the White House alongside the executive order. It states that this ‘flood of spending historically had minimal safeguards.’
Trump’s overall objective is, it states, to ‘bring discipline to a wasteful system… [that] fails to safeguard taxpayer dollars or promote merit among contractors and grant recipients.’
RELATED ARTICLE Trump administration to cull 6,700 IRS jobs as part of federal layoffs – a news article (20 February 2025) from our sister title Global Government Forum on cutbacks at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
TMF exec director leaves
General Services Administration (GSA) Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) executive director Larry Bafundo announced yesterday (28 February) that he was ‘stepping away’ from his role.
The GSA manages federal property and provides contracting options for government agencies. The TMF provides financing for government agencies to pay for IT modernisation initiatives – in its own words, to ‘break the cycle of legacy IT’.
‘TMF investments modernize government systems, strengthen security and deliver better services to the public,’ Bafundo wrote in a LinkedIn post. ‘These efforts go beyond technology improvements – they are projected to save taxpayers over $1.2 billion by making government more efficient and cost-effective. Continued investment in TMF will be critical to sustaining this impact.’
‘But modernizing government is about more than just technology – it requires changing complex systems. Many of the toughest challenges don’t fit into a two- or four-year political cycle. And while technology can be a powerful lever, real change often depends on better policy. This is because too often, government programs aren’t designed to deliver value; they are designed to deliver on political compromise. Addressing these root-cause issues requires sustained investment and long-term commitment.’
‘It has been disheartening to see public servants disparaged in the media recently,’ his post continued. ‘Are there opportunities to improve? Yes. But for the most part, public servants are smart, tenacious, and dedicated people who work every day to make the country better. They’re also your neighbors, family members, and friends.’
‘The challenges ahead are significant, but so is the opportunity, not just to improve the government we have, but to realize the government we deserve,’ he wrote, concluding by adding ‘more to come soon.’
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GSA stands up for SmartPay ‘enhancements’
Stephen Ehikian is currently GSA’s acting administrator and deputy administrator, having been appointed to the role by president Trump in January. In a press release (22 January), GSA said Ehikian – who had most recently worked for California-headquartered Salesforce – would ‘accelerate the adoption of technology throughout government, drive maximum efficiency in government procurement for the benefit of all taxpayers, and will work closely with the DOGE team to do so.’
GSA manages ‘SmartPay’, which is (according to its website) the world’s ‘largest government charge card and commercial payment solutions’ programme. DOGE has targeted SmartPay to deliver savings, with a $1 spending limit imposed on all cardholder accounts.
On 21 February, GSA released a ‘statement regarding recent [media] reporting’ about SmartPay’, saying that the action was ‘a commonly used risk mitigation best practice’ and that GSA had ‘implemented a review and approval process to ensure that purchases that directly support mission-critical activities can still be made in a timely manner’.
‘It is disappointing that some federal employees characterize proper and sensible oversight as burdensome,’ read the statement. ‘Under this administration, GSA is committed to saving every single dollar and helping federal agency partners prevent all fraud, waste and abuse.’
‘GSA is working to enhance the GSA SmartPay program by reducing administration costs, streamlining processes, and improving oversight by looking into instances of fraud and abuse,’ the statement continued, adding that ‘we look forward to working with DOGE to find additional savings and mitigate risk across government agencies that use the GSA SmartPay charge card program.’
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