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All Present and Accounted for: ANAAC fields personnel information management system

  • Published
  • By Capt. Rob Leese
  • 438th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN --  In early April, the Afghan National Army finalized their Personnel Information Management System fielding at the Afghan National Army Air Corps which standardized and digitized approximately 3,000 ANAAC personnel records.

The ANAAC served as a test bed for the implementation of a human resource computer database at the Corps level. PIMS will allow members of the Ministry of Defense and military commanders to accurately identify who is in their formation as well as more efficiently process personnel actions such as leaves, awards, evaluations, AWOLs, and promotion boards.

"Prior to PIMS, it was hard to figure out the number of military members due to their records getting destroyed or lost," said ANAAC Maj. Gen. Juma Nasir, MoD General Staff Personnel commander. "Now, we can easily find out how many people are in the ANAAC. This helps to plan and program how many uniforms, how much food and how much supplies we need for them."

 "The ANAAC PIMS Pilot Study allowed the ANA to truly test the PIMS database and formalize the military personnel records jackets. It also allowed the ANA to work out any major and minor issues with PIMS implementation prior to further ANA fielding," said Maj. Erinn Hardaway, PIMS project manager. "The ANA are well on their way to a more efficient and accurate HR database and personnel accounting system and process."

It also allows them to enter specific data and pull pertinent information in mere seconds thus saving hundred of man hours by reducing the time required to find this data. With this system, searches of physical training information, retirement data, and eligibility for promotion are within their grasp. While the primary source of information will be the digital database, hard copies of records will still back up the system.

Since September 2009, PIMS has been built from the ground up to implementation.

NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan/Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan personnel advisors have mentored them through the process, but this is an Afghan initiative and self-sustainable program that is moving them forward into the 21st century.

So far, 10 ANA General Staff and 27 ANAAC personnel specialists have been trained on the system. The next step in the process will be to implement PIMS at the 201st Corps, which will be the first ground Corps, followed by implementation at the Kabul Military Training Center.