Petróleo sob pressão após ataque dos EUA ao Irão

[Figas]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- State officials have signed a $801 million deal with IBM Corp. to build a statewide computer system that can track down deadbeat parents, a long-delayed step that has cost California millions in federal fines.

The technology will help the state Department of Child Support Services locate and track noncustodial parents who owe money, as well as simplify the collection and distribution of payments.

The state has been paying penalties since it missed a 1997 federal deadline to implement an automated system. Those payments will total $1.3 billion by 2006, when the first phase of the eight-year IBM plan is complete, according to a report last year from the California State Auditor.

California abandoned its last attempt to meet federal guidelines in 1997, when a system developed by Lockheed Martin failed a test run in several counties. That project cost taxpayers $111 million.

Only South Carolina and California continue to pay federal penalties.