CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Out-of-date case management software has hindered the government program that manages child and spousal support payments from implementing recommendations made four years ago by the Island’s auditor general, MLAs heard Tuesday.
In a 2016 report, auditor general Jane MacAdam found inconsistencies in practices used by the maintenance enforcement program, which is responsible for collecting and disbursing child support payments. The report found that enforcement methods, such as garnishment of wages or cancellation of driver’s licenses, were inconsistently applied by officers of the program.
Some officers did not use bank garnishments to collect child support arrears, while reporting individuals to credit agencies was not used at all by the program at that time.
Four years later, half of the recommendations have been implemented, while the other four remain outstanding. The outstanding recommendations relate to documentation of officer decisions, management reviews of files and monitoring and maintaining accurate internal financial controls.
Speaking during a meeting of the standing committee on public accounts, Clare Henderson, director of family law and court services, said an “antiquated” case management software program, installed in the 1990s, has limited the program’s ability to implement the auditor general’s recommendations.
"Maintenance Enforcement Program Software is not a traditional accounting platform. Not only that, it's not integrated with the Oracle software that the finance department (uses),” Henderson said.
“So that means when we want to do something like a bank reconciliation, we have to get reports from six different areas in order to compile that reconciliation."
The 2016 report stated that bank reconciliations of maintenance enforcement records and the program’s trust account had never been performed.
Henderson said the program determined in 2018, two years after the report, that a complete overhaul of the software was needed. It had taken this period of time to determine that existing updates to the old software would be insufficient.
Henderson said a software upgrade to the Computrust case management system should be complete by the end of 2020. This will be compatible with the software used by the Department of Finance.
Henderson said the remaining auditor general recommendations should be implemented by the end of the year.
Women’s Network P.E.I. executive director Jillian Kilfoil recently told The Guardian she has heard recent stories of inconsistent enforcement of child support court orders. Kilfoil also said a grace period, which allows payors a 30-day period before they incur late fees, should be shortened to five days.
On Tuesday, Henderson said the 30-day grace period was the same in all provinces and allows maintenance enforcement staff to maximize collection.
“We have files in the program where people have not seen any support in years or months,” Henderson said.
Henderson added that payment orders, which allow officers to garnishee a derelict payor’s wages, also take time and would not be a guarantee of a payee receiving their full amount immediately.
As of Feb. 10, the total child support arrears owing the province is $10.4 million. This total can fluctuate, sometimes by millions, on a monthly basis due to inter-provincial migration.
Of the 1,732 files in progress, 300 files currently account for 80 per cent of the arrears owing to the province.
Henderson told the committee that enforcement can be difficult as some individuals do not agree with the terms of their court order. She said maintenance enforcement officers can’t set or change the terms of these orders.
She also said policies have been updated since 2016, allowing officers to use all tools for collection, including wage garnishments and cancelling driver’s licenses.
Provincial authorities do not track how many individuals who either make or receive payments identify as male or female.
P.E.I. most recent statistical review found that 79 per cent of lone parent families have a female parent.
