The Department of Defense has introduced a new approach to improve visibility across acquisition and financial management systems. Called the Centralized Unique Program Identifier, or CUPID, the new approach is addressing challenges in sharing data from legacy systems across the department, officials said at a recent forum hosted by George Mason University.
Pentagon’s Problem With Legacy Systems
In March, a government committee called the Commission on Planning, Programming Budgeting and Execution Reform published the results of its years-long review of the DOD, which found that the department has many disparate, siloed and antiquated data sets, systems and tools. According to the review, the complex and aging business systems at the Pentagon hinder information-sharing, preventing leaders from making informed and timely decisions.
According to Mark Krzysko, principal deputy director of enterprise information at the Defense Department, CUPID provides authoritative data about all elements of the Pentagon’s programs, right down at the investment level. He compared it to having a birth certificate for programs.
“We don’t argue when it occurred — whether they’re going to high school, whether they’re going to college, but we know the program exists,” he shared.
The DOD now requires a CUPID code for every reportable contract action and to register them on the Defense Acquisition Visibility Environment, or DAVE.
Krzysko said the integration of CUPID into DAVE creates traceability within the acquisition process, allowing leaders to see what exactly is causing delays in a program and make changes where necessary.
“The techniques that we now have are profound for us to better have insight and guide the department, and those that execute need to have that same mindset,” he commented.
Department-Wide Disconnect
However, Yousra Fazili, chief of staff at the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), acknowledged that CUPID is an “amazing initiative” in solving the issue of systems that do not “talk to each other” but noted that it addresses only part of a wider enterprise problem. She pointed to DOD’s misevaluation of security packages sent to Ukraine.
“The problem really came down to an enterprise problem of us not having systems that talk to each other from acquisition and sustainment, from the comptroller, and from policy,” Fazili said. “So it’s a people problem and an enterprise problem.”
