DOGE says government paying for 11,020 Adobe Acrobat licenses with zero users, plus more 'idle' accounts
White House Senior Advisor to the President and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk departs the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
A recent investigation has revealed a significant waste of taxpayer dollars due to unused government software licenses. According to the report, the Department of Government Oversight (DOGE) discovered alarming inefficiencies in software usage across multiple agencies.
The findings highlighted several key areas of waste, including:
- 35,855 ServiceNow licenses purchased across three products, with only 84 actively used
- 1,776 Cognos licenses, with only 325 in operation
- 800 WestLaw Classic licenses, with just 216 utilized
- 10,000 Java licenses, of which only 400 are in use
DOGE assured the public that these inefficiencies are being addressed, stating, “All are being fixed.”
Despite these revelations, requests for comments from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the White House remained unanswered as of the time of publication.
Elon Musk weighed in on the findings, calling attention to widespread inefficiencies in government spending. "There are vast numbers of unused software licenses in every part of the government. Your tax dollars are being wasted," he posted in response to DOGE’s report.
This investigation follows DOGE’s earlier claims that the Department of Defense could save $80 million by cutting unnecessary diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) spending. As government agencies work to address inefficiencies, taxpayers continue to demand accountability for how their money is spent.
DOGE has previously flagged similar inefficiencies across multiple government agencies, including the General Services Administration (GSA), Department of Labor, Small Business Administration (SBA), and Social Security Administration (SSA).
In a recent post on X, DOGE highlighted how agencies often hold more software licenses than they have employees, with many licenses sitting idle—paid for but never installed or used.
At GSA alone, which employs approximately 13,000 people, the report found excessive software purchases, including 37,000 WinZip licenses, 19,000 training software subscriptions across multiple overlapping platforms, 7,500 project management software seats for a division with only 5,500 employees, and three separate ticketing systems running simultaneously.
DOGE assured that corrections are in progress, stating that "fixes are actively in work."
The DOGE GSA X account quickly responded, suggesting that reductions were already underway. **"
GSA Acting Administrator and Deputy Administrator Stephen Ehikian responded swiftly, stating, "Hope we didn't make you wait too long... Within three hours of @DOGE's post, @USGSA is taking immediate action to reduce $5.5M of IT spend and working to identify additional reductions across all categories—ensuring strong stewardship of your tax dollars."
A few days later, DOGE provided an update, reporting that GSA had made significant strides in cutting costs. According to their post, GSA eliminated 114,163 unused software licenses and removed 15 underutilized or redundant software products, resulting in an annual savings of $9.6 million.
A GSA spokesperson confirmed these actions in a statement to Fox News Digital, emphasizing the agency’s commitment to efficiency and fiscal responsibility. "In support of the administration’s priorities, efficiency, and good stewardship, GSA is currently undertaking a review of its contracts and resources, including IT resources, to ensure our staff can perform their mission in support of American taxpayers. GSA has taken immediate action to fully implement all current executive orders and is committed to taking swift action to implement any new executive orders."