Aides to Elon Musk, who have been tasked with overhauling the US government’s human resources agency, have allegedly blocked career civil servants from accessing key computer systems containing personal data on millions of federal employees, according to two agency officials.
Since taking office 11 days ago, President Donald Trump has initiated a sweeping transformation of the federal government, dismissing or sidelining hundreds of civil servants in an effort to shrink the bureaucracy and install more loyalists.
Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and owner of X, has moved swiftly to restructure the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) as part of his mandate to reduce the 2.2 million-strong civilian government workforce. The two officials, who spoke anonymously due to fears of retaliation, said some senior career employees at OPM have had their access revoked from critical data systems.
Among the restricted systems is the Enterprise Human Resources Integration database, which holds sensitive information, including Social Security numbers, birth dates, home addresses, pay grades, appraisals, and length of service of government employees.
“We have no visibility into what they are doing with the computer and data systems,” one of the officials said. “That is creating great concern. There is no oversight. It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications.”
While affected officials can still access basic functions like email, they can no longer view the extensive datasets covering all aspects of the federal workforce. Neither Musk, OPM, the White House, nor representatives of the new team immediately responded to requests for comment.
In an unusual move, OPM has circulated memos encouraging civil servants to consider buyout offers and use the money for a “dream destination” vacation, departing from the agency’s typically formal communications.
Don Moynihan, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy, said the developments at OPM raise concerns about congressional oversight and the administration’s approach to the federal bureaucracy.
“This makes it much harder for anyone outside Musk’s inner circle at OPM to know what’s going on,” Moynihan said.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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