COLUMBUS — The state's child support program is riddled with management problems that have prevented the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services from efficiently serving custodial parents, an audit released Friday said.

        “I do think things continue to get better,” Auditor Jim Petro said. “It was much more messed up six months ago than it is today.”

        The agency requested the audit last year amid revelations that the state improperly withheld millions in back payments owed to parents. The audit was a collaborative effort with the agency making changes as auditors identified problems.

        Of the 98 recommendations, 90 have been completed or are being implemented, Director Tom Hayes said.

        “The challenge was like trying to paint a moving train,” Mr. Hayes said. “This gives us a benchmark. This is where we were. It gives you a sense of how far we've traveled and that we do still have some distance to travel.”

        While the agency is reviewing three of the remaining proposals more closely before deciding to accept them, officials said they won't implement five of the recommended changes because they wouldn't improve the system, given Ohio's volume of child support cases, about 985,000.

        Both Mr. Petro and Mr. Hayes said the purpose of the audit was to help the agency implement a statewide program that follows state and federal regulations and improves the timeliness and accuracy of payments made to custodial parents.

        The audit, costing $800,000, examined 13 parts of the program, including the areas where the largest problems have surfaced — computer systems that collect, calculate and distribute payments and the agency's oversight of contractors.

        Overall, the audit said “the lack of strategic planning, performance measurement, and continuous process improvement efforts are the root causes of the 98 findings.”

        Among the major recommendations, the audit said:

        • Future contracts for services should be based on performance and the agency should take action if expectations are not met by contractors.

        • Accounting measures should be improved so that payments are tracked from receipt to disbursement.

        • Communication between the state and counties must be improved to ensure information about cases is accurate.

        • Health-insurance resources for children should be made available in a timely fashion to custodial parents.

        • Paternity should be established more quickly to avoid needless delays in payments.

        Since the auditors began the review, the federal government has conditionally certified the Support Enforcement Tracking System, a computer system that calculates and distributes payments. The agency has begun competitively bidding contracts to revamp the computer system.

        Former Director Jacqui Romer Sensky requested the audit before resigning after the state's admission that it failed to reprogram SETS by Oct. 1, 1997, in accordance with a federal deadline.

        As a result, the state improperly withheld millions in overdue child support payments and income tax refunds from former welfare recipients as reimbursements for aid they received. SETS has now been reprogrammed.

        County child support enforcement agencies are paying back an estimated $38 million as Gov. Bob Taft ordered last August.

        Joe Pilat, deputy director of the state's child support office, said counties so far have audited about 34,000 of the 145,000 cases that must be reviewed.

        He said about 13,000 checks worth about $3 million have been distributed to families. The checks average $230. The agency's self-imposed deadline for paying back all the money is April, and Pilat said he expects to meet that goal.

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