Termination notices sent by billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team to US Agency for International Development (USAID) staff were so rife with errors that corrected versions are being issued to avoid affecting pensions and pay, according to five sources familiar with the issue.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) “did this so quickly that they screwed lots of stuff up”, said a US official, who requested anonymity, as did all of those who spoke to Reuters.
The State Department, which is assuming some of USAID’s functions under the Trump administration’s plan to cut US foreign aid, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
USAID’s human resources staff, most of whom have been on paid administrative leave and face termination, have been brought back to the office to send out accurate notices, said the US official and a person familiar with the matter.
“My letter was completely wrong,” one USAID worker told Reuters on condition of anonymity. “The only thing correct was my name.”
It is not the first time that inaccurate termination notices have upended the lives of USAID workers since US President Donald Trump and Musk began in February to dismember America’s main conduit of foreign aid.
A first-round set April 21 as the final employment day for most personnel and May 30 for those tapped to help shutter the agency. Those dates were reset to July 1 or September 2 in the notices sent to some 3,500 USAID workers last Friday, two sources and workers said.
Other errors included inaccurate start dates, lengths of service and salaries, according to the person familiar with the matter, the US official, two former senior USAID officials, a congressional aide and four workers who received notices.
Unless fixed, those mistakes could result in reduced or cancelled pensions or inaccurate severance pay, the sources said.
Several of the sources pointed to the US Office of Personnel Management’s retirement website which says federal workers’ annual pension annuity is based on their lengths of service and three highest average annual salaries.
Reuters could not learn how many USAID personnel were issued faulty notices last Friday.
Some staff received three inaccurate notices
Several workers told Reuters that they and other colleagues received a third termination letter on Monday night still containing inaccurate information on promotions, tenure and other data.
One worker said the total federal service listed in their notice on Friday was short by three years and by six years in the notice they received on Monday.
“I actually have federal service dating to June 2008,” said the worker. “There doesn’t seem to be any logic to the RIF (reduction in force) process.”
“We’ve got people who have served for 25 years and their notices are showing they served for only three,” said the US official. “It affects their severance. It affects their future ability to retire.”
Trump assigned Musk, a major contributor to his 2024 election campaign whose companies have federal contracts worth billions of dollars, and DOGE to ferret out waste and fraud across the US government.
