D.C. Fails to Distribute Millions in Child Support
By Sewell Chan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 8, 2003; Page B01
The District government has collected but failed to distribute nearly $3 million owed to child support recipients because of computer problems and a failure to correct outdated addresses, an audit by the city's inspector general has found.
The audit, completed last week, concluded that the city's Child Support Enforcement Division relies too much on costly contractors and fails to adequately oversee their work, contributing to the District's poor performance in obtaining and enforcing child support orders.
The agency has had at least 10 acting or permanent directors in 11 years, and the audit found that "a lack of consistent leadership" is an important source of the problems. The most recent director, Joseph G. Perry, resigned last month after only 13 months.
The audit also noted that the child support system stands to lose $1.4 million in federal funds because it has not complied with federal requirements adopted in 1996 as part of the national overhaul of welfare programs.
Interim Corporation Counsel Arabella W. Teal, who oversees the child support agency, acknowledged yesterday that the agency has many failings.
"This is not a surprise to us," Teal said of the report, adding that the problems "have been of long duration and have not gotten better as time has gone on."
In a written response to the audit, the city child support agency said it received a federal grant in September to reduce the amount in undistributed funds. A contractor started work on that effort in December.
Advocates said they were stunned by the finding that nearly $3 million in "undistributed collections" have not been paid out to child support recipients.
"For the District to hold on to this money really is an outrage," said Jonathan M. Smith, executive director of the D.C. Legal Aid Society. "This money belongs to poor families. In many cases, it's the difference between having adequate food and going hungry."
The money has been accumulating in the city's accounts, the audit said.
The Legal Aid Society, which provides civil legal assistance, represents about 100 families in child support matters each year, accounting for about one-fifth of its caseload.
Smith said the report's technical findings mirrored the organization's experiences in court. "Virtually every aspect of the child support program is in disarray because there's no management able to make the agency function," he said.
From 1991 to 2000, the agency awarded four contracts totaling $48 million for technological help needed to keep track of child support cases, but the agency failed to ensure that the contractors performed the work well, the 39-page audit concluded.
Of the $3 million in undistributed collections, the audit found, about $2.3 million is attributable to record-keeping problems in 12,138 cases and almost $700,000 to an inability to track down parents.
Some wrong addresses go as far back as 1998, the audit found, but only one city worker is assigned to track down custodial parents.
The audit also found that the agency and its technology contractor failed to meet an October 2000 deadline for complying with the 1996 welfare changes. A contract clause allowed the city to withhold 10 percent of payments or impose a fine of $1,000 a day as a penalty for missing the deadline, but the city did neither.
The contractor did not train agency staff in using the system, resulting in the city's "total dependency on contractors for the day-to-day operations" of the computer system, although a February 1999 internal report concluded that such training was urgently needed.
Teal did not dispute the report's specific findings, but she said, "We have some good road maps to determine how to solve those problems."
Teal said federal officials could certify the child support agency's compliance with the 1996 welfare law requirements in the next few months.
D.C. Council member Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), who oversees the corporation counsel's office, promised to hold hearings to review the child support program "from top to bottom."
Patterson said, "The child support enforcement program in the District is broken, period."