Oklahoma City, Oklv. – President Donald Trump has implemented a new agency, The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), whose main objective is to eliminate government fraud and waste. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, in an effort to support President Trump’s initiatives, implemented via Executive Order 2025-4 on February 3, 2025 DOGE-OK, an agency Stitt claims will save Oklahoma money by addressing inefficiency and waste.
In a statement to News 9 Gov. Stitt said “By making this data easily available, we’re empowering citizens and leaders to drive smarter, leaner, and more responsible government.”
A closer look at two of the first four DOGE-OK initiatives shows the announced savings are misleading.
In the first area of savings attributed to DOGE-OK, State Agency Purchase Audits, a new software system, Celonis, was announced as being implemented to audit state agency purchases, preventing “rogue purchasing,” as well as a reduction of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) procurement team. The cut to OMES reduced staff from 12 to 6 full-time employees, which DOGE-OK claims is saving the state nearly $360,000.
Celonis was actually implemented in early 2023 via Carashoft, a full 2 years before DOGE-OK was created. As for the reduction in the OMES Procurement Team then Deputy Director of OMES and Chief Transformation Officer Jerry Moore stated in a Celonis blog that the software was being used to “redirect our workforce to other areas where their expertise is truly needed,” an assertion that runs counter to a reduction in force but rather a reassignment of state workers to other areas, resulting in a cost savings for OMES but not a savings for the state of Oklahoma overall.
The second area, Energy Efficiency Projects, states that OMES received a $42,000 rebate for completing a lighting retrofit project that will be implemented further in the future.
This savings was announced February 22, 2024, a year before the creation of DOGE-OK.
Those aren’t the only concerns raised about Gov. Stitt’s commitment to President Trump’s initiatives.
President Trump signed an Executive Order on January 20, 2025 ending Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs and preferencing in the federal government. Gov. Stitt has long been a vocal opponent of DEI.
When announcing Mark Nuttle as the Senior Advisor to DOGE-OK on February 14 Gov. Stitt said, ”We’ve stopped agencies from contracting with lobbyists and using outside PR firms, and we’re on track to have fewer state employees at the end of my term than when I took office,”
A press release on March 4 shows that the state of Oklahoma is contracted with Violet PR, a boutique firm that specializes in Economic Development. The company not is not only an outside contractor located in Montclair, New Jersey, one of it’s core values is “Building an Equitable Future” which includes “a leadership team that values diversity and actively seeks to highlight minority and women-owned businesses, Violet PR is contributing to a future that benefits everyone.”
Violet PR touts how it has promoted Oklahoma’s Department of Commerce but that it secured appearances in national media for Gov. Stitt, including the POLITICO Tech podcast in which the governor praised Former President Biden’s clean tech initiative.
Mvskoke Media contacted Governor Press Secretary Meyer Siegfried and Dan Gunderman of Violet PR regarding the contract but had not heard back as of press time.
These issues with transparency in spending and commitment to President Trump’s initiatives by the State of Oklahoma and Gov. Stitt leave more questions than answers about the direction in which the governor is moving the state.
This post sounds as confusing and inaccurate. Hopefully after the 2026 elections voters will vote Republicans out of office in Oklahoma and across the country. We must level the playing field with the Republicans to save our country.