COLUMBUS — An internal investigation says the problems that led to a state delay in distributing $38 million in child support have been eliminated.

        A children's advocate, however, believes the state's work is not done.

        The investigation by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services also said Arnold Tompkins, director of the agency from 1993 to 1998, was solely responsible for implementing the system that held back the money.

        The investigation was conducted by Kenneth Marshall, former superintendent of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, who was hired July 16 as full-time chief inspector for the agency.

        Department officials acknowledged in February that the state failed to reprogram its child-support computer system, which calculates and distributes payments, in accordance with a 1996 federal welfare-reform law.

        As a result, the department illegally withheld millions of dollars in overdue child-support payments and income tax refunds from former welfare recipients for three years.

        In August, Gov. Bob Taft ordered an estimated $38 million in support payments returned to families. The state also will pay $18 million to cover the costs for counties to determine who is owed money and how much.

        Geraldine Jensen, executive director of the Association for Children for Enforcement of Support, said the report glossed over problems that continue at the agency.

        The department has yet to produce a computer program to calculate the refunds, she said.

        “Nobody's going to get a check before Christmas,” Ms. Jensen said. “You have 160,000 people owed $38 million and nobody has got a penny yet.”

        The report, dated Oct. 23, said implementation of the child-support collection system “was the sole responsibility of Director Arnold Tompkins. Mr. Tompkins made himself an integral part of the decision-making process.”

        The report recommends no action. It says the money is being reimbursed, the computer system appears to be operating properly and Mr. Tompkins and most of the previous management team at the agency are gone.

        Mr. Tompkins said Tuesday that federal law allowed him to choose the procedure he followed. He said if he had tried to impose a new computer system in 1996, “we'd be years behind.”

        “The main point here that seems to escape everyone is the decision was based on what the law allowed us to do,” Mr. Tompkins said.

        In September, Mr. Tompkins pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor ethics violations unrelated to the child-support problems.

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