Budgetary control and the adoption of consortium blockchain monitoring system in the Ghanaian local government

• Date: 09 January 2024
• Pages: 12-29
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-07-2023-0212
• Published date: 09 January 2024
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management,Politics,Public adminstration & management
• Author: Gifty Kenetey,Boris Popesko

Budgetary control and the adoption

of consortium blockchain

monitoring system in the Ghanaian

local government

Gifty Kenetey

Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management and Economics,

Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Zl



ın, Czech Republic, and

Boris Popesko

Faculty of Management and Economics, Tomas Bata University in Zlin,

Zl



ın, Czech Republic

Abstract

Purpose –This study aimed to examine the adoption of consortium blockchain technology to ensure

interoperability for the transparency of budgetary control in Ghanaian local government.

Design/methodology/approach –This study is based on the design science research (DSR) observational

technique for developing a consortium blockchain budgetary control system for Ghana’s local government.

Findings –The study resulted in the design of a consortium blockchain monitoring and evaluation system to

set up a mechanism to monitor various budget projects, processes and transactions for Ghana’s local

government. The findings also proved Ghana is ideally positioned to gain an advantage from designed

artefacts such as ours, given its digitalfinancial service (DFS) policy. In addition, the evaluation of the designed

artefact proves there will be a positive impact on budgetary processes by addressing transparency concerns;

however, the success of this concern dependson how the local government organisation embraces the artefact.

Research limitations/implications –The study sheds light on budget monitoring and evaluation tied to

peer-to-peer (P2P) participation in the public sector via an advanced administrative digitalised networking and

communication algorithm (A Distributed Ledger Technology - blockchain). The difference between the

designed artefact and the traditional M&E system is argued. The study is limited by the paradoxes and

inefficiencies of the integration of blockchain into the Ghanaian local government but, at the same time,

presents a high level of certainty and possibility.

Practical implications –The proposed artefact has presented relevance because it is a new solution to

existing concerns like trust, transparency, accountability and compliance, thereby improving local government

budget administration.

Originality/value –The study has offered unique and new methods, guidelines and designs for tracking

various budget projects and processes beyond the conventional technology-driven approach via DSR,

exhibiting a unique solution for solving budget transparency, trust, accountability, compliance and data

accessibility concerns.

Keywords Budget control, Consortium blockchain, Monitoring and evaluation system, Local government,

Budget transparency, Ghana

Paper type Research paper

IJPSM

38,1

12

The authors of this research express gratitude to the Tomas Bata University in Zl



ın

e for funding this

study (No: IGA/FaME/2022/003). Their role of acquiring stationery materials and financial support,

which offered a chance to access some journals during the authors’idea’s conception and planning stage,

was helpful. Aside from financial provision and stationery materials, their remarkable support in

organising research training via webinars and one-on-one sessions relating to the authors’theme gave

insight and direction to the successful completion of the authors’work.

The authors of this study are very thankful for the reviewers’constructive criticism, which guided

them in improving their investigation for the best outcome.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/0951-3558.htm

Received 3 July 2023

Revised 10 October 2023

27 November 2023

Accepted 19 December 2023

International Journal of Public

Sector Management

Vol. 38 No. 1, 2025

pp. 12-29

© Emerald Publishing Limited

0951-3558

DOI 10.1108/IJPSM-07-2023-0212

Introduction

Today’s governments face enormous challenges in running their countries as there is arise in

the aspirations of citizens not content with and mistrusting the government, as well as

political polarisation. Public organisations’budgeting strongly emphasises preventing

budget dysfunctions (Kenetey et al., 2022a,b;Gollwitzer, 2011). The authors revealed

transparency as a challenge tied to the institution of budgeting in the Ghanaian economy.

Thus, using cutting-edge technologies to improve budgetary dysfunctions tied to

transparency in public service delivery is no longer a choice but a need for modern days

(Saxena et al., 2022). This advanced age of technology and innovation requires budgetary

transactions in public organisations to employ distributed technology ledgers (DLT) for data

capturing and as a form of monitoring and evaluation of processes rather than the traditional

data capturing and monitoring stored on centralised or decentralised servers. Budget

monitoring and evaluations in public organisations must engage all stakeholders to ensure

trust and transparency. These concerns require that organisations be open to the objectives

and that underlying blockchain processes be used to find, process and provide information

(Shin and Ibahrine, 2020). This study argues that with the traditional budgetary control

(M&E) system, allocations and all budget processes are monitored and evaluated manually or

based on financial performance reports stored on centralised or decentralised servers. This

approach to M&E cannot be trusted or considered transparent to its stakeholders due to

budgetary dysfunctions and inefficiencies. This study foresees pressure on local government

organisations to abandon conventional budgetary systems that use centralised servers by

adopting blockchain technology, which is a distributed ledger that is openly accessible and

shared amongst a network of members for its budgeting process (Cheng et al., 2017;Wong

et al., 2022). Thus, we designed a consortium blockchain monitoring and evaluation system to

monitor various budget projects and processes to solve the issues of trust, budgetary

transparency, compliance, accountability and data accessibility. Warkentin and Orgeron

(2020) affirm that blockchain technology has the potential to completely transform the range

of services provided by all levels of government. The authors emphasise that because the

technology is based on cryptography, which verifies transactions, it gives integrity to the

public sphere. It is critical to note that some attempts to apply blockchain technology in

organisations have failed because those organisations have not developed blockchain-driven

dynamic capabilities (Quayson et al., 2023).

Moreover, to understand how the government adopts new technologies and examines its

ramifications, this study researches beyond the conventional technology-driven approach by

integrating the design science research (DSR) approach with budget control (monitoring and

evaluation), offering a unique approach under blockchain literature. This study provides

comprehension of a consortium blockchain budgetary tracking system and explains that

whilst blockchain integration into the Ghanaian local governments is paradoxical, it presents

high certainty and possibility. The study aims:

(1) To examine the adoption of consortium blockchain technology to ensure

interoperability for the transparency of budgetary control in Ghanaian local

government.

(2) The study’s objective is to analyse the integration of consortium blockchain

technology with budgetary control for transparency in Ghana’s local government via

the DSR framework, providing guidelines for applying and assessing the concept.

Literature review

Blockchain is a collection of connected computers rather than a single server, making a

distributed network of ledgers (Lastovetska, 2021). Thus, digital transactions can be

Consortium

blockchain

monitoring

system

13