By Jonathan Landay and Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Termination notices sent by billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team to U.S. Agency for International Development 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 “did this so quickly that they screwed lots of stuff up,” said a U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. official, two former senior USAID officials, a congressional aide and four workers who received notices.
Unless fixed, those mistakes could result in reduced or canceled pensions or inaccurate severance pay, the sources said.
Several of the sources pointed to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s retirement website that 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 U.S. 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 U.S. government.
According to its website, the only official window into its operations, DOGE estimates it has saved U.S. taxpayers $140 billion as of April 2 through a series of actions including massive workforce cuts, asset sales, and contract cancellations.
Its savings total is unverifiable and its calculations have contained errors and corrections. Musk has said DOGE will correct mistakes when it finds them.
Since February, most USAID staff have been put on administrative leave, hundreds of contractors were fired and more than 5,000 programs terminated, disrupting global humanitarian aid operations on which millions depend.
Some termination notices sent on Friday to USAID personnel did not account for requests to waive the July 1 termination date, including from overseas staff whose children still would be in school, according to three sources.
Others had applied for waivers because they need more time to pack their homes and relocate to the U.S., the sources said.
“Some people have the wrong dates. Others have the wrong information,” said the person with knowledge of the matter, adding that people given the wrong termination date “can’t return home” unless their notices are reissued with the correct date.
The person said that the error-filled notices were sent under the supervision of USAID acting administrators Jeremy Lewin, a DOGE operative, and Kenneth Jackson, who have been overseeing the agency’s dismantlement.
They report to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who Trump tapped as acting USAID administrator.
(Reporting by Jonathan Landay and Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by Timothy Reid; Editing by Don Durfee and Christopher Cushing)
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