New child support system to get boost

Wednesday, April 14, 1999 | 10:52 a.m.

The agreement on the NOMADS system is the result of Guinn's trip to San Francisco on Monday to meet with federal officials and computer specialists.

"We still have significant hurdles to clear and a lot of work still needs to be done, but we had a very productive meeting and we left with a commitment to resolve the NOMADS crisis," Guinn said.

Changes in federal welfare regulations necessitated an upgrade and redesign of the system, leading to huge cost overruns and missed deadlines.

The federal government is demanding a high level of accountability in exchange for its cooperation and any further funding, Guinn said.

The governor said he will work with the Legislature and IBM, the company that has the contract with the Welfare Division to implement the system, to find solutions to the problem.

The current plan includes the immediate release of $700,000 in federal funds, a meeting with federal officials on Monday for an expedited review aimed at getting additional withheld funds released, and efforts to quickly develop a plan effort to convert Nevada's child support system to NOMADS.

Guinn said he will also initiate a plan to obtain state funds to assist Nevada counties in converting to NOMADS, which stands for Nevada Operations of Multi-Automated Data Systems.

The federal government in 1988 required states to develop computer networks to assist in the tracking of child enforcement payments to improve collections and reduce taxpayer support for the welfare system.

Nevada, which has already spent $95 million on its system - $70 million in federal funds - could face millions of dollars in fines for failing to meet deadlines to get the system up and running. The first deadline was Oct. 1, 1995, which was extended to Oct. 1, 1997.

The system was originally projected to cost less than $20 million when work on the Nevada project began in 1993.