Child Support Computer System Criticized

SACRAMENTO — A legislative report to be released today finds that California’s six-year effort to build a computer system for tracking deadbeat parents--the largest such state-run computer project in the nation--is in such disarray that authorities might abandon the effort.

The report, obtained by The Times, will be presented this morning to an Assembly committee considering whether to try to save the system by investing another $72 million or junk the project and swallow a loss of up to $82 million.

The report said the State Automated Child Support System computer--which is required by federal law to be operational statewide this September--is “considered unusable in many of 23 counties in which it has been deployed.”

It added that lawmakers must “determine if the system has a realistically viable future or, in the alternative, if it should be scrapped altogether. There is significant doubt, even among the parties involved, whether the system will ever function properly.”

Gov. Pete Wilson once made the child-support computer system a cornerstone of his hope to double the state’s collection of child support from deadbeat parents. The hope was that it would significantly reduce the welfare rolls and represent a large savings for taxpayers.

Specifically, the computer system was designed to streamline the processing, collection and distribution of child-support payments statewide. Instead, some counties have reported hundreds of cases lost in the system each month.

But now, the project looms as possibly the second major white elephant in three years for California computer systems. In 1994, the state pulled out of a failed computer system for the Department of Motor Vehicles at a loss of about $50 million.

That debacle forced a staff shuffle in state government and prompted Wilson to establish a cabinet-level position to monitor state computer systems. The governor appointed John Thomas Flynn as the state’s first chief information officer.

Today’s legislative report, prepared by the staff of the Assembly Committee on Televising the Assembly and Information Technology, questioned whether Wilson’s reform had failed.

“Put simply, Flynn’s primary objective as CIO was to avoid another DMV,” the report says. “Based on the findings of the staff . . . there remain serious doubts as to whether that objective was fulfilled.”

Wilson administration officials acknowledged problems with the child-support computer system late Wednesday--although they rejected the report’s finding that the system is not usable in many of the 23 counties. They said Flynn has met with the computer vendor--Lockheed Martin Information Management Services Corp.--to identify corrections before the system can be expanded. It has begun in 23 smaller counties and is scheduled to expand to the remaining 25 larger counties.

“With regard to adding additional counties on the system, the state is currently analyzing its options,” said Sean Walsh, Wilson’s press secretary.

Assemblywoman Elaine White Alquist (D-Santa Clara), whose committee ordered the report, said she will recommend no more money for the project until success is guaranteed.

“We should not add another dime until we know the system is functional, and I have my doubts that it ever will be,” she said. “At this point, I’m not saying that we should pull the plug. But I am saying we should look at this carefully.”

Already, the estimated cost to complete the project has skyrocketed. The legislative report said the project was originally budgeted in 1991 at $99 million. Today, it says the estimate to complete the system would be $260 million, with $82 million spent so far.