DIHMRS Dies; DoD Rejoices; Why Did We Waste That Much Time and Effort?

After hearing for at least 3 years that DIHMRS was "just around the corner." ADM Mullen put it out of our misery.

After $1 billion and 12 years of effort, Defense officials have pulled the plug on a hapless plan to bring the four military branches under a single, modern payroll and personnel records system.

"This program has been a disaster," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month.

"Many of the programs that I have made decisions to cut have been controversial within the Department of Defense," Defense Secretary Robert Gates told senators. "This one was not."

The object of so much disaffection is the Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System (DIMHRS), known as "dime-ers."

Gates clearly wasn't a fan of the title or program, which at its peak employed 600 military, federal civilians and private contractors who tried to use off-the-shelf technology to meld up to 90 automated systems that continue to run across the DoD.

"I would say that what we've gotten for a half billion dollars is an unpronounceable acronym," Gates quipped, though his cost estimate was short by half. The Government Accountability Office says a billion dollars had been spent on DIMHRS through 2009.

Its demise leaves the Army, Navy and Air Force still reliant on archaic, problem-plagued payroll and personnel systems. Required upgrades had been postponed again and again over the years, always in anticipation that all services would be moving to, and satisfied with, DIMHRS.

By: Brant