Lawmakers OK more cash for flawed computer system

Kiley Russell

Friday, May 21, 1999 | 9:08 a.m.

CARSON CITY - An Assembly panel has agreed to sink another $9 million into the statewide headache known as the NOMADS welfare computer project.

The $140 million project - currently $128 million over budget - has been a problem for Nevada lawmakers for 10 years and still isn't fully functional.

SB547, endorsed Thursday by the Ways and Means Committee, appropriates $9 million to the Welfare Division - in addition to the $28.3 million proposed by Gov. Kenny Guinn for completing the statewide child support monitoring system.

The money includes $5.3 million for penalties due to the federal government because the system - designed to help county officials track and recover delinquent child support payments - isn't working.

"SB547 is the result of a lengthy fact-finding mission that Gov. (Kenny) Guinn engaged in," said state Welfare Division chief Myla Florence.

Florence said that the governor met with federal welfare officials, local Nevada district attorneys who will be using the system and with IBM - the contractor that designed NOMADS. SB547 is the result of recommendations developed at those meetings.

The bill is intended to shield county governments from the impending federal penalties, which Florence says could be lessened by about $3 million if NOMADS can be up and running by a September 2000 deadline.

County officials had earlier complained to lawmakers about having to pay the fines for a system the state demanded they adopt.

The rest of the money is earmarked for employees working on the NOMADS project and for converting and loading thousands of existing welfare cases into the new system.

While many counties have been busy loading their case information into the system, most rural areas have very small welfare staffs and are having problems getting their data transferred.

To speed up the process, the state is working on a "regionalization plan" allowing counties to pool resources to tackle the enormous job of updating NOMADS, Florence said.

Some of the money will also be used to conduct an independent study on NOMADS' effectiveness, to be presented to both federal and state officials.

Also, it will pay for monitoring the system and making any programming adjustments necessary that will make it easier to use.

Lawmakers have long blasted the NOMADS project, IBM and state officials for allowing the problem to get so far out of hand. Still, seeing no other options, they followed Assemblyman Joe Dini's lead, who said, "I'm going to hold my nose and vote yes."