KABUL- The new Afghanistan Human Resources Information Management System was officially unveiled in a ribbon cutting ceremony Dec. 26.
AHRIMS, a supportable, sustainable and user-friendly comprehensive human resources information management system for the Afghan National Security Forces will be the new vehicle through which the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan will assist the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Interior with personnel management and support.
Afghan National Police Col. Bashir Ahmad Khoroshu, chief of AHRIMS, said the files were in bad shape before shifting to AHRIMS due to poor management and lack of an official filing system, so they switched to the automated system to clean them up and help keep better accountability of their people.
“Before we got AHRIMS everyone had paper files, but because Afghanistan has been going through transition a long time, most of the files have been lost,” he said. “But I’ve got a good feeling, I think this will be very successful and is on the right path.”
According to Capt. Schokrullah Hotak, an ANP personnelist who has worked with both the old system and now the new, AHRIMS has also significantly increased productivity.
“It’s not just good, it’s better,” he said of the automated system. “I think it will be the best program. Before, to check one person’s name, we maybe had to look through a whole book of names, but with the data on the computer, I just type in his name and his info pops right up.”
Hotak said AHRIMS literally transforms hours worth of work into seconds.
“Our productivity has definitely increased. Work that used to take a full day can now be accomplished in three hours, sometimes less,” said Hotak.
In addition to keeping better accountability and boosting productivity levels, AHRIMS will also store the complete historical files of each person to include their level of education, date of assignment, term of service, work experience, awards, punishment and execution of legal rights.
“The automated system will help us keep track of a person’s specifications and qualifications,” Hotak said.
“When we understand the specifications of our personnel we can assign people correctly, and once the people are assigned correctly, we can have a successful police force, stabilize security, fight crime, implement law, protect our borders and safeguard our highways. But it all starts with the proper management of our personnel.”
Though the yearlong process to get AHRIMS online and transferred to Afghan authority was not without challenges, Lt. Col Shawn Hawkins, chief of ANP human resources development, said they were still able to reach operational capability.
Faced with connectivity issues and training constraints Hawkins said, they continued to work together to overcome the challenges throughout the implementation process.
“There will still be some challenges as we continue the implementation process, but we are committed to making it work,” said Hawkins.
Challenges aside, French Brig. Gen. Christian Dupouy, Assistant Commanding General Police Transitional Group commander, said a centralized database is a very modern way to deal with human resources.
“Not too long ago, AHRIMS was an idea in someone’s head, but today it became a reality,” he said. “As NTM-A transitions, it’s important to have a system of record that will ‘stick.’ Although the process may have initially been plagued with problems, shoulder by shoulder we worked and now we have 196 personnel trained at 39 different locations, and the system is a success for everyone involved.”
| Date Taken: |
12.26.2011 |
| Date Posted: |
01.28.2012 05:35 |
| Story ID: |
82977 |
| Location: |
KABUL , AF |
| Web Views: |
32 |
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