WHEREAS, the child support enforcement program implements a federal/state effort to collect child support from absent parents and, in Hawaii, the state agency managing the program is the Child Support Enforcement Agency within the Department of the Attorney General; and

WHEREAS, the Child Support Enforcement Agency has a staff of support enforcement officers, investigators, accountants, attorneys, paralegals, and other personnel who help establish and enforce orders to collect child support; and

WHEREAS, the Child Support Enforcement Agency, on a case-by-case basis, offers the following services:

(1) Locating an absent parent;

(2) Establishing paternity;

(4) Collecting and disbursing support obligations; and

(5) Enforcing delinquent child support obligations; and

WHEREAS, the Agency handles more than one hundred eleven thousand active collection accounts involving more than $104,000,000 annually and agency caseworkers handle an average of five hundred twenty cases each; and

WHEREAS, over the years, there have been persistent complaints about the inefficient operation of the Child Support Enforcement Agency; and

WHEREAS, for example, The Honolulu Advertiser reported on April 10, 2005, that Hawaii's Child Support Enforcement Agency had failed to collect more than a $500,000 in delinquent payments for parents and their children, ranking last among all states in collecting overdue child support, according to federal and state records; and

WHEREAS, that figure would have been higher if Child Support and Enforcement Agency officials did not artificially improve the numbers in 2004 by shelving nearly five thousand accounts worth $11,800,000 so that those accounts were no longer reported to federal regulators as delinquent; and

WHEREAS, in late 2003 independent auditors found that the Agency's past performance has been so dismal that it has cost the State millions of dollars in federal payments that serve as incentives for states to improve their child support collections and distributions; and

WHEREAS, parents who have custody of their children and have been waiting years for the State to collect at least some of the money owed to them report that the child support enforcement system is broken; some parents have waited decades to see any payment, while others have been forced onto welfare rolls; and

WHEREAS, state taxpayers absorb some of the cost of the Child Support Enforcement Agency's inefficiency because, to ensure that needy children are provided for even if a parent reneges on child support, the State first provides welfare assistance, and then attempts to collect reimbursement from the responsible parent; and

WHEREAS, according to the State, 2,491 of the child support accounts that were shelved in 2004 involved $5,900,000 in welfare assistance paid to the custodial parents who were not receiving child support from their former partners–-taxpayer money that the Child Support Enforcement Agency will not attempt to recover; and

WHEREAS, of the five thousand accounts shelved in 2004, 1,461 accounts involved $5,800,000 owed to custodial parents and their children by nonpaying responsible parents, averaging $3,986 per account, with one account reaching a debt of $80,000; and

WHEREAS, according to state and federal figures, in October 2003, child-support delinquencies in Hawaii totaled $533,340,151; and

WHEREAS, for the fiscal year ending in September 2003, Hawaii accounted for 53,681 cases of child-support delinquencies but collected money in just forty per cent of the accounts and ranks below all the other states except the District of Columbia with a thirty-seven per cent collection rate; and

WHEREAS, independent auditors noted that in 2001 and 2002, the Child Support Enforcement Agency had to return a total of $1,600,000 in federal incentive payments, in part because the agency failed to meet required collection and distribution performance levels and that from 1998 to 2002, the agency had not claimed $3,700,000 in reimbursements available from the federal government for certain administrative expenses; and

WHEREAS, recurring audits of the Child Support Enforcement Agency have shown a pattern of similar deficiencies over the years including a lack of internal financial and management controls and it is imperative that the child support enforcement system be corrected; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2006, that the Auditor is requested to conduct a financial and management audit of the Child Support Enforcement Agency; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Attorney General and the Administrator of the Child Support Enforcement Agency are requested to fully cooperate with the Auditor in the conduct of the financial and management audit; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Auditor is requested to submit the results of the financial and management audit, including any necessary proposed legislation, to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2007; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Auditor, the Attorney General, and the Administrator of the Child Support Enforcement Agency.

Report Title:

Child Support Enforcement Agency; Financial and Management Audit