D.A. Urged to Overhaul Child-Support Program
A private consultant has recommended a partial reorganization of the Orange County district attorney’s child support collection division to keep pace with a caseload that has increased by more than 100% in the past five years.
The seven-month study prepared by the audit firm of Price Waterhouse found that the collection rate, which was about $47 million last year, was on pace with that at most other urban counties. But the firm recommended that the division’s 290 employees be reorganized into more efficient teams to handle the increased number of cases.
Last year, the child support division handled slightly more than 100,000 cases, up from about 40,000 in 1989.
Assistant Dist. Atty. Wallace J. Wade said that the audit was in part commissioned to prepare for the county’s conversion of its child support filing system to a California computer network, the Statewide Automated Child Support System.
Wade said the network would provide county officials with greater ability to locate delinquent parents and begin faster collection proceedings.
The Price Waterhouse study cost the county about $80,000.
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