It has been found that Elon Musk, the director of America's newly formed 'Department of Government Efficiency', blocked access to the office's computer system to senior government employees. According to Reuters, Musk's associates have taken control of the Office of Personnel Management, which manages the US federal civil service. It is a body similar to Nepal's Civil Service Library and Public Service Commission.
As soon as Donald Trump was elected as the President, he announced the establishment of the Department of Efficiency called Dodge for improving government administration. Although he chose Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon to take charge of it, Ramaswamy announced his departure hours after Trump was sworn in on January 20.
After getting a chance to lead the department alone, Musk has placed some of his assistants in the Office of Personnel Management, according to the Independent news agency. His aides such as Anthony Armstrong, Brian Zeldy, Amalda Scales are sending emails through the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) telling employees to resign and go on vacation to "dream destinations". According to Reuters, more than 2.3 million federal government employees were offered furloughs with cash incentives last week if they voluntarily quit their jobs.
For that purpose, Musk's group is said to have developed a separate system for sending emails to federal employees. Two senior OPM employees told Reuters they had been restricted from accessing the office's data systems. "We have no idea what they are doing with their office computers and data systems," said one employee, adding, "This increases the risk of cyber security and hacking."
The office's system, called Enterprise Human Resources Integration, has a massive database that includes details on millions of employees, including dates of birth, Social Security numbers, performance ratings, home addresses, pay grades and length of service, officials said. In this system, OPM employees have responded that access to the dataset is blocked even though they are able to log in and use email and other services.
President Trump has been making extensive changes since taking office by cutting a significant number of employees, appointing his supporters, reducing expenses, and reforming the bureaucracy. Billionaire Musk, the head of Tesla and Space X, is helping Trump in this . Reuters reports that he has cut 2.2 million employees.
