Audit on the Effectiveness of Child Support Enforcement Services Performed by the Office of the Sheriff

Audit Report In Brief

This audit determined whether the Office of the Sheriff (Sheriff’s Office) effectively carried out its responsibilities of serving summonses and subpoenas for child support as outlined in its written agreement with the Human Resources Administration (HRA).

Audit Findings and Conclusions

The Sheriff’s Office is ineffective in carrying out its responsibilities in serving summonses and subpoenas for child support according to its written agreement with HRA, as follows:

•  The Sheriff’s Office did not adequately research respondent address information.

•  The Sheriff’s Office did not make attempts to find respondents at different times (one attempt in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening).

•  The Sheriff’s Office did not make initial attempts to find respondents in a timely manner.

•  The Sheriff’s Office used alternate personal service on initial attempts to find respondents rather than making additional attempts of personal service.

In total, 24 (17 percent) of the 144 sampled cases in which respondents could not be found were for respondents who were delinquent in child support payments, with arrears totaling $165,559. Based upon our analysis, we project that 1,545 of the entire population of 9,265 cases in which respondents could not be found during Fiscal Year 2003 were for respondents who were delinquent in child support payments. Moreover, had the Sheriff’s Office been able to find and serve the 1,545 respondents and had the respondents subsequently appeared in court and made arrangements to make payments for their arrears, as much as $10.6 million in child support payments might have been collected and paid to the custodial parents for the care of their children.

Although overall the Sheriff’s Office was ineffective in carrying out its responsibilities in serving summonses and subpoenas for child support according to its written agreement with HRA, we did note that the Sheriff’s Office correctly calculated the service dates to be at least eight days before the scheduled court hearing dates, and did not attempt service after the service dates. For 54 (75 percent) of the 72 sampled cases in which respondents were not found and the Sheriff’s Office had accurate and sufficient address information, a minimum of three attempts to each address of record was made, as required by the written agreement with HRA. In addition, for 263 (89 percent) of the 297 sampled child support cases, the date and address of each attempt at finding respondents indicated on the sign-out sheets internally used by the Sheriff’s Office corresponded with the information contained on the Certificates of Attempted Service and Certificates of Service submitted to HRA.

Audit Recommendations

To address these issues, we make six recommendations, including the following:

•  The Sheriff’s Office should gain access to various computer databases such as Lexis Nexis to increase the automated search options for finding respondents.

•  The Sheriff’s Office should ensure that it complies with its written agreement with HRA and makes attempts on different days and different times (one attempt in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening.)

The Sheriff’s Office should establish written guidelines governing the length of time it should take to make its initial attempts to find respondents.