Office of the Attorney General
An Audit Report on Selected Initiatives of the Child Support Division of the Office of the Attorney General
February 2000
Report Number 00-009
Overall Conclusion
The Office of the Attorney General (Office) has developed a feasible design for two-day processing of child support payments as required by Welfare Reform legislation. However, the Office has not completed modifications to existing information systems that are critical to meeting the two-day federal requirement. Furthermore, the Office missed the federal deadline for establishing a State Disbursement Unit (SDU) by October 1, 1999. If the SDU is not established before April 1, 2000, the Office is subject to lose between $1.2 million and $14.5 million in federal funding over the next two years. Insufficient planning to contract for the SDU contributed to the delay. Pilot results indicate the Regional Call Centers are likely to improve customer service by significantly increasing the number of calls answered. Since the pilot has surpassed the Regional Call Center fiscal year 2001 targets and one out of four calls remained unanswered, the Office should set more aggressive targets and target dates.
Key Facts and Findings
Although the Office of the Attorney General (Office) has developed a feasible design for a State Disbursement Unit (SDU) as required by Welfare Reform, two critical components of the design are not yet complete. Without modifications to both the Office's and the Comptroller of Public Accounts' information systems, the Office will not be able to process child support payments within two business days as federally mandated. Moreover, the Office missed the October 1, 1999, federal deadline for implementing an SDU. If the SDU is not established before April 1, 2000, the Office is subject to lose between $1.2 million and $14.5 million in federal funding over the next two years. Insufficient planning to obtain a vendor contributed to the delay in establishing the SDU. The Office also does not have contingency plans to address circumstances that may further delay implementation.
Additionally, the Office is implementing a Regional Call Center initiative to address customer service issues, particularly the low percentage of customer calls answered. Pilot results for the Dallas region indicate significant improvements in the number of calls answered (72 percent). The pilot results have surpassed the Office's target to answer 40 percent of calls by August 2000. However, one out of four calls to the pilot center went unanswered, and the Office's performance goals do not address this issue until fiscal year 2004. Consequently, the Office should set more ambitious targets and establish a more aggressive schedule for increased levels of customer service.
We also reviewed two federal and state performance measures at the request of the Office. We recommended that the Office document the methodology for calculating performance measures.
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