DSS seeks $17M for parent tracking system 18 years overdue

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The Department of Social Services says a centralized computer system to track deadbeat parents won’t be running statewide until October 2019, representing another delay in a system already 18 years overdue.

Project manager Jimmy Earley told a Senate panel Wednesday that federal approval of the agency’s latest contract took longer than expected, delaying the four-year timeline.

Agency officials said earlier this year the system would operate statewide by March 2019.

Earley asked the panel for $17 million next year toward the system’s creation. A series of contract disputes and lawsuits have repeatedly delayed that. The state contracted with Xerox earlier this year.

The state has been fined more than $120 million since missing its extended 1997 deadline for complying with a 1988 federal law.