Similar to how the Defense Department has a high level oversight council that works across the military services to refine and build joint requirements, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is building a more structured requirements function that will improve communications between users and the acquisition community, according to agency officials.
The joint staff within CBP will have functions like the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Borkowski, assistant commissioner for the Office of Technology Innovation and Acquisition, says at an industry day sponsored by his office. Specifically, Borkowski points to the functions like the DoD Joint Staff’s J3 Operations directorate, and the J5 Strategic Plans and Policy directorate as the types of capabilities CBP is trying to establish to enhance its requirements processes.
It is still a work in process, Borkowski says. However, he notes that recent investments along the Northern Border as well as joint investments reflect the approach CBP is taking.
A year ago CBP opened the Operational Integration Center in Detroit, which brings together agency officials from the Border Patrol, the Office of Field Operations, and the Office of Air and Marine, as well as the Coast Guard, Michigan State Police, and Canadian law enforcement authorities.
Borkowski said that CBP has a Joint Operations Directorate, which was stood up about a year ago, which the joint staff will eventually migrate too.
As CBP improves its agency-wide requirements processes, strategic resource planning also needs to be added to the mix, says Eric Coulter, deputy executive principal for Program Development at CBP. He adds that refining the requirements should help the agency acquire assets sooner and at lower costs.