The US Department of Finance has confirmed that a technical manager was granted access to the payment system of the department at the “read” level as part of a work assessment. This confirmation came in response to Senator Ron Wyden, who sought clarification on this issue in a letter. The letter indicated that Tom Kraus, the CEO of Cloud Software Group, which owns Citrix and Netscaler, was brought in as a “special civil servant,” allowing private specialists to temporarily fill positions in the executive branch. It was noted that Elon Musk also operates in this capacity.
The Ministry of Finance explained that Kraus’s involvement in working with the department’s systems was part of an internal audit aimed at identifying inefficient processes. Employees at the Ministry of Finance who worked with Kraus were said to only have access to encrypted data from payment systems for efficiency assessments.
Despite these assurances, senators raised concerns about the access given to Musk’s employees to the Ministry of Finance systems. Politicians contended that Musk’s employees had full access to the payment system handling social security payments, tax refunds, and payments to federal employees and contractors.
The Ministry of Finance confirmed that Kraus was hired as a consultant to assist in evaluating the efficiency of federal payment systems, working alongside experienced professionals in the department while adhering to safety and confidentiality standards. In addition to Kraus, it was rumored that former SpaceX and X engineer Marco Elease also gained access to the Ministry of Finance systems, reportedly with full administrator privileges and purportedly making changes to the payment code to incorporate fund transfer blocking functionality.
Senator Wyden strongly criticized the Ministry of Finance’s response, accusing the authorities of attempting to conceal the situation while Musk expanded his influence. Senators protested against the access granted to DOGE in the Ministry of Finance systems, as well as in the personnel management service, the US Agency for International Development, and the General Services Office.
Recently, unions representing 7.2 million individuals filed a lawsuit against the US Treasury for the transfer of citizens’ confidential data to the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE) led by Elon Musk. The lawsuit alleged that such data transfer violated confidentiality laws prohibiting federal authorities from sharing personal information without citizens’ consent, except in strictly regulated circumstances. Despite this, DOGE employees, many of whom lacked government agency experience and