State to Stay With Child-Support Computer Setup

SACRAMENTO — The state official responsible for overseeing California’s computers on Thursday defended a long-delayed and problem-plagued $260-million system for tracking down deadbeat parents, even as he acknowledged that the project might not be operating properly for another three years.

The price tag for the State Automated Child Support System originally was estimated at $99 million in 1991. But that number grew to $260 million this year, and could balloon to $300 million.

An outside computer consultant working for the state, meanwhile, has identified 1,400 problems with the system.

But John Thomas Flynn, head of the California Department of Information Technology, said that the state is “on top” of the situation, and that the cost of the project remains within reason.

“As of right now, we’re going to stay the course,” Flynn said.

Flynn’s comments came as Assemblywoman Elaine White Alquist (D-Santa Clara) issued a report prepared by the Assembly staff charging that California’s six-year effort to build the computer system is in such disarray that authorities might need to abandon it.

The computer system is operating in 23 counties with small populations, but cannot interface with, for example, Los Angeles County. Some counties on the system have reported losing track of cases.

Also on Thursday, an Assembly budget subcommittee threatened to withhold roughly $40 million in funding in next year’s budget for the computer project until Flynn’s agency can provide details about whether the system will work.

“I am concerned that state government is throwing away taxpayer dollars on a high-priced computer program without any assurance that it will work,” Alquist said.

In California and nationally, increasing enforcement of child support orders is a major part of the effort to reduce welfare rolls.

The federal government required that all states create a computer system for tracking child support cases, and agreed to pay 90% of a state’s cost. The government imposed a September deadline for California’s completion of the statewide tracking system--after initially extending the first deadline from 1995.

Flynn said the state will miss the September deadline for having the computer in full operation and, in fact, may need three more years to finish the work. But although the federal government could withhold millions of dollars from California for failing to have the system in operation, Flynn said, several other states are having similar difficulties.

“It would be premature for us to pull the plug on the project,” Flynn said.

He attributed much of the rising costs to added requirements imposed by the Legislature, and the complexity of trying to track 2.2 million cases across 58 counties.

Flynn hired Logicon Inc. to analyze the computer system, and the Sacramento company reported finding 1,400 problems with it. In a letter dated Feb. 26, the Department of Information Technology gave the main contractor, Lockheed Martin IMS Corp., 90 days to fix the system. He said he will reassess the situation once that period ends later this month.

Julie Sgarzi, senior vice president of Lockheed, said in an interview Thursday that Lockheed “absolutely” can solve problems with the State Automated Child Support System.

She pointed out that Lockheed built the successful computer system used by Los Angeles County to track its child support cases, and “it is the largest system in the country.”

“We’ve been through it,” Sgarzi said. “[The state system] is certainly more complex because it adds 58 [county] jurisdictions. We’re going to stick with [the project] and be successful for California.”