ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, June 25, 1996 TAG: 9606250048
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
Virginia's effort to automate its welfare system already has cost about $20 million, and some officials say the ill-fated ADAPT project could wind up costing taxpayers much more for years to come.
With ambitious welfare overhaul already on line in parts of Virginia, officials say, the absence of a reliable centralized computer system could force the state to hire hundreds of workers to keep track of recipients.
The welfare overhaul requires virtually all able-bodied welfare recipients to work in exchange for benefits. It also places a cap on the amount a family receives, regardless of how many children they have, and allows recipients to continue receiving benefits for a maximum of two years.
The Application Benefit Delivery Automation Project, launched in 1991, was supposed to help. By condensing 16,000 rules and 3,500 pages of policy into a central computer, ADAPT was supposed to simplify the monitoring of food stamps, Medicaid and Aid to Families with Dependent Children recipients.
Now, legislative auditors say the project was so badly mismanaged that 2,800 computers are missing and feared either lost or stolen. Welfare agencies face nearly $10 million in federal fines for their folly.
The mess has both sides pointing fingers at one another.
In December, Gov. George Allen's administration abruptly froze the development program, citing rising costs and fears the system wouldn't work. Estimates to repair serious technical problems range from $4 million to $65 million and would take at least two years to implement, officials say.
They think Allen is asking too much and giving too little.
``Welfare reform has increased the demands of customer tracking, eligibility determination and support service provision. These can only be achieved if staff have automated tools in hand,'' wrote Bettie Kienast, director of the Henrico County social services department, in a May 7 letter to state Social Services Commissioner Clarence Carter.
Administration officials, meanwhile, say the reform package is already working without the new technology in localities where it has been been implemented.
``Local governments have everything they need,'' Carter said. ``We've provided the dollars and upgraded the existing system ... It's not the Mercedes, but it's certainly, let's say, a Taurus.''
The Allen administration blames a combination of factors, most notably former Gov. Douglas Wilder's administration and a Democratic legislature.
``It's a project that had intense interest in the previous administration and preceding General Assemblies ... but there's been little oversight and little legislative interest in how much money was being spent,'' said a Health and Human Resources deputy secretary, Paul Conway.
Susan Massart, a staff analyst for the General Assembly's audit and review commission, concluded after the commission's latest review of the project that the state has made heavy demands and stranded local agencies between conversions of two or even three incompatible computer systems.
``One local social services director said it is as if the localities have been `led into the desert, and then somebody shot the camel,''' Massart told lawmakers at a hearing June10.
So far, only the food stamp program is working in 10 pilot counties, which have about one-fourth of the state's 250,000 cases. About 30,000 cases have been converted to the new system, with some success.
The welfare-tracking program is closer to fruition, but state officials say the more complex Medicaid database cannot be finished.
A state task force is trying to get a handle on cost projections and recommend to the General Assembly by July 15 whether to revive the computer project or start over. Carter has ordered an inventory of 8,189 pieces of computer equipment and this month apologized to local officials.
In the meantime, local social service workers wait and wonder.
``ADAPT was supposed to ... have made it easier to deal with our clients,'' said Suzanne Chis, director of social services for Alexandria, which is both a pilot for the computer program and a welfare-to-work city. ``Instead of relieving our burdens ... we're actually in a worse situation than we were before.''
LENGTH: Medium: 77 linesby CNB