South Carolina is poised to spend $25 million on computers to help track down deadbeat parents after racking up more than $42 million in federal fines for not doing it sooner.

The State Budget and Control Board on Tuesday authorized the creation of a statewide computer database of parents who default on child support payments.

South Carolina parents owe more than $700 million in back payments. That often involves low-income families but not child support disputes handled by private lawyers instead of the state Department of Social Services — whose overall collection rate is about 50 percent.

The five-year project likely will cost more than $100 million. The state would cover at least $25 million of that, with the federal government picking up the rest.

Five years ago, the federal government began levying fines on the state for its failure to comply with the database requirement, despite efforts by South Carolina officials to block them.

But it’s not clear how much the system will help to identify — and get money from — the more than 70,000 South Carolinians who dodge child support payments each year.

“We think it will help,” said Larry McKeown, director of the state’s Department of Social Service’s Child Support Enforcement Division. “We’ll gain some efficiencies in speed and data sharing. Right now, we operate 47 separate systems.”

That’s one system for DSS, and one for each of the state’s 46 counties. A merged system would give a DSS worker in Richland County instant access to records from the rest of the state.

The database also could be used by officials trying to track delinquent parents who have crossed state lines.

South Carolina and California are the only states in violation of federal law because they don’t have a unified child support database that can be accessed by local, state and federal officials.

South Carolina tried to build a $43 million system in 1994, but a private contractor the state hired failed to produce the system. That triggered lawsuits that allowed the state to recoup $17 million.

In his $5.3 billion budget proposal, Gov. Mark Sanford proposes taking $11.5 million from the state’s capital reserve fund — a rainy-day account — to begin paying for the computer system.

DSS officials insist the lack of a unified computer system hasn’t stopped them from collecting from deadbeat parents.

DSS case workers collected more than $247 million in child support payments last year, and the ratio of collections per worker is ranked the nation’s highest.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Carolina also leads the nation in prosecutions of deadbeat parents who cross state lines.

“Quite frankly, other districts just haven’t taken this issue as seriously,” said assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin McDonald.

Amanda Miles, a single parent from Elgin, knows the frustration of trying to get by without the support money for her daughter.

Miles says her ex-boyfriend, who defaulted on payments, was ordered by a Lexington County court last year to pay $126 a week in child support.

She says she hasn’t received a dime of the more than $6,000 now owed to her daughter.

“I had to take my daughter out of day care because I can’t afford it anymore,” said Miles, who works for an insurance company. “I had to borrow money from my sister to pay for diapers.”

Miles’ case highlights what could be a more immediate problem at DSS than the lack of a computer system.

Last year, the agency had the highest number of cases per worker in the country — an average of 757 for each full-time employee.

Miles said multiple telephone calls to DSS caseworkers were never returned.

McKeown says more case workers would be nice, but he is unsure if it would make a big difference for parents like Miles.

“The real problem is not DSS or the courts,” McKeown said. “There’s just been, for whatever reason, an abandonment of responsibility by many parents.”

Reach Stensland at(803) 771-8358 or jstensland@thestate.com