News Release: CTHRU Statewide Payroll data restored after brief period of inaccurate publication
Today, the Office of the Comptroller reports that the accuracy of data on the CTHRU Statewide Payroll platform has been restored. This announcement comes after a technical processing error led to inaccurate data being published on CTHRU for a brief period of time between Monday, November 10, and Wednesday, November 12.
The CTHRU Statewide Payroll platform is available at macomptroller.org/cthru. In service of the Office of the Comptroller’s commitment to transparency and statutory requirements, CTHRU publishes payroll data for all Commonwealth of Massachusetts permanent, temporary, and contract employees. This includes employees serving in the Legislative, Judicial, and Executive Departments as well as Independent Agencies and Constitutional Offices.
The technical processing error inflated the payroll amount shown for individual employees, which in turn led to a misrepresentation of total payroll at the department and statewide level. At least one media organization referenced the inaccurate data published on CTHRU. There was no way for the media organization to know that the data was in error.
Said Comptroller of the Commonwealth William McNamara: “We at the Office of the Comptroller take pride in providing a thorough, accurate, and transparent way for taxpayers and stakeholders to know how public funds are being spent, and how public employees are being compensated. We are committed to a clear and honest public accounting of public funds, as integral for accountability in government. In this case, we fell short of that standard; the lapse was relatively brief but the outcome was unfortunate. We apologize to the media organizations who rely on this data, as well as to the employees whose payroll information was reported inaccurately.”
About CTHRU
CTHRU is an innovative financial records transparency platform, built and maintained by the Office of the Comptroller. Since its 2016 launch, CTHRU has offered an intuitive experience for exploring how and where public funds are utilized. CTHRU features statewide spending and payroll data, information on pensions, revenue, budget-to-actual spending, new hires, quasi-government spending and payroll data, and more. CTHRU is available through the website of the Office of the Comptroller, at macomptroller.org/cthru.
About the Office of the Comptroller
The Office of the Comptroller oversees the financial systems and processes of the Commonwealth, including vendor payments, spending on government programs, and the state payroll. We are responsible for statewide accounting and for financial reporting under both GASB (Government Accounting Standards Board) and federal requirements, and for providing transparency to the citizens, taxpayers, and residents of the Commonwealth. As an independent executive-level agency, we work to ensure that financial operations are compliant with state finance law and to maintain secure, controlled, and effective financial systems. We combine oversight with collaboration to partner with financial staff at more than 150 departments across state government, with state employees, and with contractors, payees, and vendors.
The powers and obligations of the Office of the Comptroller are generally dictated by M.G.L. c. 7A.
The Comptroller of the Commonwealth is William McNamara, who has served as the 20th Comptroller since February 2020.
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