Two months ago this website exposed the collapse of South Carolina’s latest effort to comply with a federally mandated child support database.
Missed that story? So did the mainstream media.
To recap: In 1988 the federal government mandated the creation of a centralized computer system to monitor child support payments – giving states ten years to set up their networks. Not only did the Palmetto State fail to get its system up and running on time, by 2006 it was the only state in the nation still lacking such a database.
Seven years later it still hasn’t created the system, although it has paid more than $104 million in fines. And spent another $66 million on a failed effort to build the system.
“Don’t get us wrong … the child support enforcement database is an unfunded mandate of the worst sort,” we wrote in our report. “South Carolina’s judicial branch ought to be in charge of establishing its own system for handling child support payments – free from federal interference.”
But South Carolina hasn’t challenged this mandate. Instead it has wasted $170 million trying (and failing) to comply with it.
Which leads to our exclusive reporting on recent break-up between Hewlett-Packard (HP) and S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley’s Department of Social Services (SCDSS) – which is finally being picked up by the state’s mainstream media.
According to our sources, HP “walked away from the (child support enforcement database) project.”
According to SCDSS, however, the company was terminated. Not only that, the agency says it has filed paperwork with the state’s procurement office seeking to ban HP from all future state contracts.
“We disagree strongly with the state’s action,” an HP spokesman told reporter Tim Smith, “and will defend ourselves vigorously.”
The HP spokesman added that SCDSS “mismanagement” is responsible for the ongoing failure of this project.
The colossal and ongoing failure of the child support enforcement database obviously isn’t the only problem at Haley’s welfare agency: SCDSS has dropped the ball on a food stamp waiver touted by Haley, its benefit call center was recently shut down (reportedly pending a federal investigation) and its so-called “welfare-to-work” success is the result of cooked books (like its food stamp system).
Oh and in addition to all that the agency has actual blood on its hands.
And despite the agency hiring several of director Lillian Koller’s “special friends” to try and right the ship … nothing has worked.
Several state lawmakers – including S.C. Sen. Katrina Shealy and State Reps. Kirkman Finlay and Jenny Horne – have expressed concerns about the direction of SCDSS in recent weeks. Horne has even demanded an audit of the chronically mismanaged agency.
In the meantime, SCDSS continues to stumble from one costly failure to another.
4 comments
I would like to see SCDSS take over Lexington Medical Center
Lillian Koller would become President and CEO with total control of all staff, programs and services
All elected/appointed officials in the State of South Carolina and their immediate families including those by marriages to the 8th degree who are covered by the State Health Plan would be required to use solely the services of Lillian’s Medical Center
Betcha a pitcher of ying ling the first time the Gypsy Queen goes in for a pelvic exam and has a speculum slapped in her rectum she will get off her sore fat ass and do something about the bitch
This lack of action occurred under 5 governors. Republicans all, except a one term Democrat thrown in the middle.
DSS became a cabinet agency in the first round of ‘reorganization’, by 1994 or ’95, as I recall.
The great Carroll Campbell was governor from ’87 – ’95 and we have the absolutely lost 8 years of Mark Sanford hiking.
SCDSS…SCDOT….SCDOR….SCDMV…SCDEW…ETC. Scandal after cabinet scandal. Most exploded so early in the Haley administration, they had to have been going a good, long time before she took the oath.
Why aren’t Democrats running on ‘competency’ and against the destruction of a merit based state civil service system to make way for the pure, unadulterated cronyism that defines ‘reorganization’ and the cabinet system?
OK, one question: Why is a list of people committed to an action UNDER LAW being kept by DSS, a social service? Now, an observation: I could put that system list together in a month, using an XL spreadsheet and three bottles of Bowmore20 single malt. The greatest expense would be the scotch.
With all the witnesses to Blanco’s workplace behavior and DUIs, I find it hard to believe that no one sued DSS over it. I wonder how many lawsuits they, and DHEC, have had to fend off, like at LL&R. It’s got to add up.