With a few clicks, Comptroller Thomas Shack can easily pull up information on the latest hires at the MBTA, the Department of Children and Families, or any other executive department. He can see an employee’s salary, their education, their years of relevant experience and even whether an elected official wrote them a letter of recommendation.
Shack doesn’t just have quick access to this information because of his office. Now anyone can access that public information through the comptroller’s transparency and open records platform CTHRU, which was expanded to include more government spending data at the end of July.
“This expansion is a natural extension of what we’re obligated to do to ensure that every dollar the commonwealth spends is accounted for,” Shack said. “Accountability is huge.”
Cloud-based program CTHRU launched in September 2016 to provide information on state spending and payroll and bring the state up-to-date with public records laws. The public information added to the website July 31 includes daily updates on state spending, quasi-government agency financial summaries and payroll, state and teacher retirement benefits and new hires in executive branch departments.
“It provides an ability to get more eyes on the data. I have 125 people on my staff and I manage $60 billion a year. I’m not concerned about who finds fraud, I just want to find the fraud,” Shack said.
The more eyes on the data the better, as far as Shack is concerned. He says having government spending out in the open will lead to less gender pay disparity and discourage patronage.
The data expansion brought the cost of CTHRU from around $200,000 to $400,000, “pennies on the dollar” compared to cost savings it creates, Shack said. The comptroller’s office chose subscription software Socrata to do the data overhaul last year rather than create a customized system for the commonwealth.
“It’s as modern as it gets,” Shack said. “Today, you’ll see yesterday’s transactions. No human interaction. It’s all set up automatically so the data points flow automatically. None of it contains any PII, or personally identifiable information, or sensitive information, and it provides a great deal of transparency. You can do as deep a dive as you want,” Shack said.
The newly added data will aid people like reporters and members of public interest groups who often need to file public records requests and wait for state employees to compile the information. Shack estimates the state has saved millions in public records compliance costs since CTHRU launched last year.
The state twice a month announces tax collection revenues, but those interested in state spending can now get daily updates. For example, daily state spending reports on CTHRU show Massachusetts has spent $6.18 billion in the current fiscal year which began July 1.
“Is everybody thrilled about the system? No,” Shack said. “Not everybody shares my penchant for transparency. I’ve been very fortunate because we have a Legislature that shares that penchant, we have a governor that shares that penchant, we have a treasurer and an auditor who share that penchant … They all are very, very pleased with this system because it makes state government more accessible and more accountable. But there are people that don’t. There are people that don’t like their salaries on the web, but that’s a condition of employment with the commonwealth of Massachusetts. When you get public dollars you have to be accountable with those public dollars.”
