CARSON CITY -- Nevada has an abysmal record on collecting child support, and state Welfare Division officials are not responding to the problem with the urgency it deserves, a lawmaker said Tuesday.

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, cited a number of Nevada rankings in child support success compared to other states, noting that the state ranks 49th in establishing paternity, 49th in the amount of child support collected, 48th in the number of cases where support is not current and 47th in cost effectiveness.

In fiscal year 2005-06, child support was collected in only 46 percent of the cases in the state, Buckley said during a review of the agency's budget by a joint Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means subcommittee.

"So we haven't even broken the halfway mark where someone is owed child support and doesn't get it," she said. "These are dismal statistics and yet I still hear no sense of urgency or acknowledgment that our system is in a state of crisis. All I hear is we're doing better, we collected a little bit more.

"But tell that to one out of two custodial parents that hey, we're doing better, we just haven't broken the 50 percent mark," Buckley said.

A performance audit by a consulting group reported the alarming statistics in 2006. The audit recommended more collaboration between the state and county child support staff, improved efficiencies, centralization of certain functions and an increase in customer service.

The audit found: "In all five categories the federal government uses to measure performance and provides incentive dollars, Nevada is in the bottom six of the 50 states."

The audit said Nevada's child support program in fiscal year 2004-05 collected and distributed over $115.5 million in 114,440 cases.

Nancy Ford, administrator of the state Welfare Division, said the agency is concerned about the audit findings. Some of the findings can be implemented now, while others will require legislation, she said.

"And we concur with all of the recommendations presented in the audit," Ford said.

Part of the problem is that Nevada's child support system relies heavily on legal procedures, she said. Changing that to an administrative process would get claims resolved much more quickly, Ford said.

Buckley said she wants feedback on which of the 10 audit recommendations require funding and what modifications might be needed to the budget to implement the recommendations.

Ford said the information will be provided within a week.

One particular concern of the audit is the need for Nevada to do a better job of establishing paternity. Nevada establishes paternity for 66 percent of the agency's caseload who need paternity established. The national average is 87 percent.

"Nevada should develop a comprehensive approach to establishing paternity at hospitals through voluntary acknowledgments," the audit said.

The state could increase child support collections by more than $20 million a year if all the recommendations were implemented, the audit said.