S.C. fine: $55M and counting

Federally mandated system to track late child support remains unfinished

As far as Congress is concerned, South Carolina is a deadbeat state.

Since 2001, the state has been fined more than $55 million for not complying with a federal law by setting up a computer system to track parents who don't make their child support payments.

And thanks to ongoing legal problems with a company that wants to build the system, things may not change before more fines come due.

It's not as though the Department of Social Services hasn't been trying. Much of the coordination that Congress wants already occurs, but because of various legal problems with contractors, the computer system isn't in place.

"The state is getting good service," says Virginia E. Williamson, general counsel for DSS. "With the current system, we're doing the business of child support."

And Larry McKeown, director of DSS's child support enforcement division, says that parents skipping from one jurisdiction to another "isn't happening a lot."

But there are a lot of folks out there who owe child support and aren't paying. As of April 30, DSS had 152,162 active child support cases statewide. More than 125,000 of those people collectively owe more than $1 billion in back child support.

Just keeping up with all the child support cases, and all that money owed, is behind the act that started all this. Nearly 20 years ago, Congress passed a law requiring each state to have a single system to track child support payments, one that could be shared by each county.

That would allow the state to track parents as they move from one place to another and possibly falling through bureaucratic cracks.

In the 1990s, the state had a company building the system, but when questions arose about whether the work was meeting federal requirements, things fell apart.

The company walked out, and the courts got involved. By 2001, the fines were mounting.

In 2005, the Legislature put $25 million toward its part of the new computer system, with the federal government expected to pick up the rest of the cost, which could exceed $100 million by some estimates.

That system was bid last year, and Saber Software Inc. won the contract. But then the trouble started again.

Protech Solutions, Inc. and Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. filed a complaint that the bid was awarded unfairly. In information technology contracts, bids are ranked on a number of criteria, and the lowest bid doesn't automatically win.

Protech says it was ranked No. 1 in the selection process but when the state tried to negotiate the price (Protech and ACS bid $30 million more than Saber), things bogged down. Soon, Protech attorneys say, the state negotiated a deal with Saber.

The state's chief procurement officer ruled against the complaint, and Protech appealed. The case goes before the state's Procurement Review Panel on Friday.

"We feel like basically, we scored the highest and best in the bidding and the state did not fully and fairly negotiate with us before moving on to the next bidder," said Henry P. Wall, attorney for Protech.

In documents filed with the state, Protech says the problem began when the governor's office got interested because of the vast difference in prices on its bid and the cheaper one from Saber.

Joel Sawyer, spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford, says the governor's office is part of a principal's group overseeing the state's effort to get out from under the fines and get a system in place.

But, "we don't get involved in negotiations," Sawyer said.

Mike Sponhour, spokesman for the state Budget and Control Board, says that the loser in Friday's hearing has the right to appeal to state courts. And that, DSS officials say, could hold up the process even longer. A state judge could order the state to hold off on its system until the courts hear the case.

Meanwhile, the fines add up. McKeown says the amount owed each year comes to 30 percent of the money the federal government sends for its two-thirds share of funding the child support division.

McKeown and Williamson say the non-compliance fines surrounding this computer system don't reflect on the level of service. In fact, Williamson notes, "we're getting incentive money for meeting and exceeding goals," in child support.

Unfortunately, until this computer mess is straightened out, some of that money goes right back to the feds in fines.

Reach Brian Hicks at 937-5561 or bhicks@postandcourier.com