Summary: The U.S. Courts National Fine Center, a project being developed by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, is expected to centralize and streamline the government's processes for collecting, accounting, and reporting criminal debts. It will also centralize payment of restitution to crime victims and generate national statistics on the results of its debt collection efforts. Eventually, the National Fine Center is expected to link up with other federal agencies' computer systems involved in the collection process. Although the Center should address many problems that have long hampered the federal collection of criminal debts, GAO doubts whether the Center will be up and running by its 1995 target date, largely because the integration of judicial districts has fallen behind schedule. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts is not complying with federal requirements designed to protect the Center's database from unauthorized access. GAO has serious concerns that these disturbing computer security weaknesses could potentially threaten the entire National Fine Center system.
