By Gina Tabonares
Variety News Staff

VISITING federal officials from Washington, D.C. yesterday announced the need to update Guam’s child support enforcement system, saying that the island is one of the few remaining territories that still uses an obsolete computer program.
Margot Bean, the head of the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, also said in a press conference that the Justice Building — where the Child Support Enforcement Division of the Attorney General’s Office is located — is a security risk and will fail the review of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service with respect to several security issues.
The AGO’s Child Support Enforcement Division is using a computer system known as the Absent Parent Automated System Information, or APASI, which has not been upgraded or updated since 1996.
Although a recently purchased computer saved the division from collapsing, the outdated system is still considered slow compared to the new system that a majority of the states are using nowadays.
Bean said the AGO system is always in danger of breaking down and affects the services of case workers.
She suggested that either the AGO upgrade the system again or get a completely new system estimated to cost $8 million.
Attorney General Alicia Limtiaco said the AGO is now in the process of developing a proposal for lawmakers to review and analyze whether upgrading the system or having a new system would be more cost effective.
Limtiaco said local government pays 33 percent of the funding, while the federal government pays for 66 percent.
Bean, who has been collaborating with Limtiaco for three days, said she provided a checklist of security concerns to help Guam pass federal scrutiny.
She said that under federal regulations, child support enforcement offices should maintain an office where cabinets are properly locked, documents and files are securely stored, and office space shouldn’t be shared with other government operations.
Bean arrived on Guam with Mike Rifkin, lead information technology specialist at the Office of Child Support Enforcement in Washington, D.C., and J.P. Soden from the Office of the Child Support Enforcement Program in San Francisco to help the AGO improve its enforcement and collection of child support.
A former assistant attorney general, Bean began her career as head of the local child enforcement division. She said Guam is important to the federal government which has long been monitoring the island’s situation.
“I always look at how Guam is doing. I am always interested in learning that it is moving forward and we are here to help address the issues raised by the Office of the Public Auditor. Several issues in connection with how to improve the performance on collections have been discussed,” Bean said.
She lauded the AGO staff for their “dedication to enforce the child support program.”
Bean, whose child support collections leadership reached record levels, noted that Guam’s collection rate with its unique situation is commendable, but still has a lot of potential for improvement.
She said that since the federal government expanded the threshold on the child support passport denial program in October 2006, collections remarkably increased.
Under the expanded threshold implemented late last year — from $5,000 to $2,500 — non-custodial parents delinquent in their child support payments will have their passports denied.
The federal decision affected thousands of divorced and separated couples whose child support debts must not reach $2,500 if they wish to avoid being put on the list of those whose passports will be denied.
At present, there are about 2,000 parents affected by the passport denial program.
In order to increase child support collections, the attorney general has implemented an incentive program to renew passports by stipulated court order.
Deputy Attorney General Barbara Cepeda, head of the AGO Child Support Enforcement Division, earlier said that the administering agent of each jurisdiction’s Child Support Office has the authority to release passports on a case-by- case basis.
Cepeda said the primary purpose of the new passport denial provision is to strengthen the collection of child support debts.