Implementation of a Biometric Time and Attendance System for Government Workers in Plateau State

Ghost workers and time fraud in Plateau State government institutions, North Central Nigeria, represent a significant drain on public finances, and biometric-based time-and-attendance systems offer a technically verified approach to addressing this challenge. This project implemented a fingerprint biometric time and attendance system for deployment at a government secretariat in Jos. The system used an AS608 optical fingerprint module interfaced with a Raspberry Pi 3B+ running a Python application and a PostgreSQL backend database. Government workers' fingerprints were enrolled during a registration session and linked to their staff identification numbers. On arrival and departure, fingerprint scans created timestamped attendance records accessible via a web-based administrative dashboard developed in Django. Bulk export of attendance reports in Excel format was supported for payroll integration. The system was piloted at a 200-staff government parastatal over 30 working days. Fingerprint enrolment success rate was 96.5 percent (7 staff required PIN backup due to worn fingerprints). Daily attendance logging accuracy was 99.1 percent verified against a parallel manual register. System response time per fingerprint scan was 1.2 seconds. No ghost worker attempts were recorded during the pilot, compared to a pre-implementation ghost worker prevalence estimate of 4 to 6 percent from audit records. Total system cost for 200 users was 148,000 naira. The study recommends integration with the Plateau State Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System for automated salary calculation triggered by attendance records.

Keywords: biometric attendance, fingerprint system, government payroll, Plateau State, North Central Nigeria