Agency accused The Child Support Enforcement Agency has about $7.2 million in unpaid child-support payments, say attorneys representing custodial and noncustodial parents in a lawsuit against the state.
of payments backlog
A suit says the state's child-support
agency is behind by $7.2 millionBy Debra Barayuga
dbarayuga@starbulletin.comThe jury-waived trial in Circuit Judge Sabrina McKenna began yesterday to determine whether the agency is in compliance with state law requiring that child-support payments be mailed within 48 hours of receipt.
During opening statements, Francis O'Brien, one of the plaintiff attorneys, said the agency, not children, are benefiting from this $7.2 million "slush fund" and that there are no safeguards in place to prevent theft, fraud or misuse of the money.
"This money is not safe as long as it's in the hands of CSEA," he said.
O'Brien said that despite an automated disbursement system implemented in 1998, the agency has been unable to track the money belonging to the plaintiffs nor made any effort to find the individuals entitled to that money.
KEIKI, implemented in 1998, is the agency's enforcement and record-keeping system that tracks noncustodial parents to custodial parents.
Without court intervention, "The money will sit in CSEA and will never find its way to children," O'Brien said.
Deputy Attorney General Charles Fell, who represents the CSEA, said the agency is not on trial for "sloppy accounting errors" and that the $7.2 million figure is "too high."
According to their expert, the amount of money not paid to custodial parents within the two-day period as of July 4 was $545,807.
He said the state is expected to prove that "we know what goes into the KEIKI system and what goes out."
He said that as of June 30, the agency is faced with 100,000 active cases and annual collections amounting to $100 million.
The agency receives between 1,800 and 2,000 child-support payments per day from noncustodial parents and other sources and issues 35,000 checks per day through its automated KEIKI system.
The system was audited by the federal government and found to be 95 percent reliable, Fell said.
"KEIKI is designed to get checks out within two business days," he said.
Fell said the statute that requires the 48-hour turnover applies only to payments withheld from custodial parents' paychecks.
The class-action lawsuit was filed in 1998 on behalf of Ann Kemp, a divorced parent with one child who was frustrated in her attempts to obtain the support payments that were being withheld from her ex-husband's paychecks.
Child Support Enforcement Agency
