The study examined the effectiveness of e-Pakon (Electronic Pangestoh Oncorah Naghereh), a mobile-based attendance platform developed to address persistent disciplinary problems among civil servants. Researchers found that the system not only reduced opportunities for attendance manipulation but also accelerated administrative processes and created a more transparent disciplinary culture across local government institutions.
These findings are particularly relevant as governments worldwide continue to adopt e-government technologies to improve accountability, workforce management, and public service performance.
Why Pamekasan Needed a Digital Discipline System
Pamekasan Regency had already achieved a strong Electronic-Based Government System (SPBE) performance score of 3.92 in the 2024 evaluation, the highest in the Madura region. Despite this digital infrastructure progress, the local government continued to face serious challenges related to employee absenteeism and disciplinary violations.
According to the study, the Pamekasan administration manages more than 7,000 state civil servants (ASN) and nearly 5,000 non-ASN employees. Monitoring attendance for such a large workforce through conventional fingerprint machines and manual recapitulation had become increasingly inefficient and vulnerable to manipulation.
To address this problem, the government launched e-Pakon, a mobile application that allows employees to check in using their personal smartphones. The system combines real-time GPS tracking with facial biometric verification, creating a more secure and flexible attendance mechanism.
How the Research Was Conducted
The research used a qualitative descriptive approach and focused on several key institutions involved in the implementation of e-Pakon, including:
- BKPSDM (Human Resources Development Agency),
- Diskominfo (Communication and Informatics Office), and
- various regional government agencies (OPD).
Data were collected through in-depth interviews with government officials and employees, direct observation of the application and monitoring dashboard, and analysis of attendance reports, disciplinary records, and government performance documents from 2024–2025.
The researchers evaluated the program using a Public Sector Innovation Typology framework covering service innovation, technology, processes, organizational management, conceptual innovation, and governance collaboration.
Key Findings: Faster, More Transparent, Harder to Manipulate
The study identified several major improvements resulting from the implementation of e-Pakon.
Service efficiency improved
Employees no longer needed to queue at fingerprint machines. Attendance could be completed directly from personal devices, reducing congestion and saving productive working time. Internal service satisfaction increased from 91.34 to 92.76, placing it in the “Very Good” category.
Advanced security reduced fraud
E-Pakon adopted a Zero-Trust security architecture combining Face Recognition, Geofencing, and anti-spoofing protection. The system blocked the use of gallery photos, detected Fake GPS applications, rejected manipulated device timestamps, and flagged suspicious VPN-based access attempts.
Server log analysis recorded 842 Fake GPS attempts, with a 98.5% successful blocking rate, demonstrating the system’s strong resistance to location-based attendance fraud.
Administrative processes became automated
Previously, attendance recapitulation and tardiness calculations required five to seven working days each month. Under e-Pakon, sanctions and Additional Employee Income (TPP) deductions were calculated automatically through algorithms connected to the regional payroll system (SimGaji).
The automation eliminated many manual calculation errors and reduced opportunities for negotiation or favoritism in disciplinary enforcement.
Organizational culture began to change
One of the most notable findings was the decline of the “ewuh pakewuh” culture — a Javanese-Indonesian expression referring to reluctance to sanction colleagues or subordinates because of personal relationships. Because violations were recorded and processed automatically by the system, disciplinary decisions became more data-driven and transparent.
Local Culture Played an Important Role
The application’s name, “Pangestoh Oncorah Naghereh,” roughly translates to “serving as the light of the nation.” Researchers noted that this cultural and philosophical branding helped reduce employee resistance to what could otherwise be perceived as a purely punitive surveillance system.
The study also observed the emergence of digital shame dynamics: when attendance violations appeared on internal dashboards, employees became more motivated to maintain punctuality in order to protect their professional reputation among colleagues.
This suggests that successful digital governance reforms may depend not only on technology, but also on the integration of local cultural values and organizational psychology.
Challenges Remain
Despite its successes, e-Pakon also revealed important implementation challenges. The most significant was server congestion during peak attendance hours (06:45–07:00 WIB), when thousands of employees attempted to access the system simultaneously, causing latency and authentication failures.
Another issue involved device inequality. Approximately 40% of employees used smartphones with 3GB RAM or less, resulting in authentication times of 20–45 seconds and a higher risk of application crashes. Researchers warned that such technical limitations could unfairly contribute to tardiness penalties for some employees.
The study also identified a potential presenteeism problem — employees being physically present merely to avoid sanctions without necessarily contributing meaningful work output. High attendance scores did not always correspond with equally high performance indicators across all government agencies.
Implications for Digital Government Reform
The authors argue that digital attendance systems should be viewed as integrated governance ecosystems rather than simple administrative tools. In their analysis, the combination of biometric verification, algorithmic decision-making, financial incentives, cultural messaging, and inter-agency data integration created a much stronger disciplinary mechanism than traditional attendance monitoring.
They recommend several policy improvements:
- expanding server capacity through load balancing,
- providing tolerance adjustments for low-specification devices,
- refining geofencing radius settings, and
- integrating e-Pakon with the national BKN e-Kinerja performance portal so that attendance data are directly linked to employee performance reporting.
As paraphrased from the study, Mochammad Zukhrufilla Rifkiansyah and colleagues from Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 Surabaya emphasize that sustainable bureaucratic reform requires the convergence of technology, organizational culture, managerial incentives, and collaborative governance structures rather than relying on digital tools alone.
Author Profile
Mochammad Zukhrufilla Rifkiansyah, M.A.P. Candidate — Master of Public Administration Program, Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 Surabaya; specializes in digital bureaucracy and public sector innovation.
Agus Sukristyanto — Lecturer in Public Administration, Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 Surabaya; focuses on public policy, governance reform, and administrative management.
Endang Indartuti — Academic and researcher in public sector management, organizational governance, and regional government innovation at Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 Surabaya.
Source
Rifkiansyah, M. Z., Sukristyanto, A., & Indartuti, E. (2026). Innovation of the E-Pakon (Electronic Pangestoh Oncorah Naghereh) Program in Improving Employee Discipline in the Pamekasan District Government. International Journal of Sustainability in Research (IJSR), Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 347–362.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.59890/ijsr.v4i4.3
Official Journal URL: http://ijsrjournal.my.id/index.php/ijsr
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