Shocking Waste Exposed by DOGE: Why Is the Government Hoarding 37,000 WinZip Licenses With 13,000 Employees

In Just 2 months, DOGE has found over $65 Billion dollars of Tax payers money. Here are more discoveries.

Agencies often have more software licenses than employees, and the licenses are often idle (i.e. paid for, but not installed on any computer).

The Department of Government Efficiency’s findings on software license waste at the General Services Administration reflect a broader push under the Trump administration, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, to slash federal spending and bureaucracy, as outlined in an executive order signed on January 20, 2025.

For example, at GSA, with 13,000 employees, there are:

• 37,000 WinZip licenses
• 19,000 training software subscriptions (and multiple parallel training software platforms)
• 7,500 project management software seats for a division with 5,500 employees
• 3 different ticketing systems running in parallel
• 380 Microsoft Office 365 licenses with 0 users
• 128 Microsoft Teams conference room licenses; only installed in 30 rooms
• 250 VSCode licenses; only using 33
• 129 Photoshop licenses; only using 22.
• 5 cybersecurity licenses, each with > 20k seats; DOL headcount is < 15k

The official Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is accessible at https://doge.gov/, is an initiative launched by the second Trump administration in January 2025 to streamline federal spending and enhance governmental efficiency.

Established through an executive order, DOGE rebranded the United States Digital Service into the U.S. DOGE Service, aiming to modernize federal technology and software while cutting costs. Led informally by Elon Musk, a prominent tech billionaire and Trump ally, the initiative has sparked both enthusiasm and controversy, with promises of reducing the federal budget by up to $2 trillion through eliminating waste and redundant agencies.

As of February 25, 2025, the doge.gov website serves as a hub for tracking DOGE’s actions, featuring updates on contract cancellations and regulatory reforms, though it has faced criticism for transparency issues and legal challenges over its authority.

This initiative follows layoffs and restructuring at agencies like the GSA, where recent reports indicate over 100 probationary employees were affected, part of Musk’s aggressive cost-cutting strategy targeting federal inefficiencies, including technology modernization and redundant systems.

The excessive licenses—37,000 WinZip licenses, 19,000 training software subscriptions across multiple platforms, 7,500 project management software seats for a 5,500-employee division, and 3 parallel ticketing systems—highlight systemic issues in federal asset management, as noted in a 2024 GAO report on wasteful spending due to poor tracking of goods and services.