Curbing ghost worker fraud in developing countries using consortium blockchain

Bello, Musa Ibrahim and Thomas, Daniel R.; (2023) Curbing ghost worker fraud in developing countries using consortium blockchain. In: IWSPA '23. ACM, USA, pp. 77-83. ISBN 9798400700996 (https://doi.org/10.1145/3579987.3586569)

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Abstract

One of the major issues facing the governments of developing countries, such as Nigeria, is ghost worker fraud. Ghost worker fraud refers to all practices relating to employee impersonations that have salary cost effects on the government. More than one hundred billion Naira (220 million US dollars), is lost annually due to ghost workers fraud in Nigeria. Solutions such as the development and implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) by the Nigerian government did not solve the problem. Blockchain technology offers the promise of improved transparency, auditability, autonomy, security, and efficiency. To address the problem of ghost worker fraud, in this paper, we investigate blockchain and its relevance to ghost workers fraud and other forms of corruption in Nigeria. We also examine the problems of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS). We then propose the use of a consortium blockchain framework to tackle ghost worker fraud and detail the type of consensus algorithm and the blockchain structure required. This framework could substantially reduce cases of ghost worker fraud in Nigeria and elsewhere.

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