Timesheet fraud

[Anonymous]

I work in a consulting industry where the billable hours are charged to the clients. Clients are mainly public entities; Local, State and federal governments.

Last week, I came across a couple questionable timesheets entries. While digging more into it, I have found that at least three employees are cheating on billable time. For example, Employee A works on three projects between 7am and 4 pm. The time between the three projects are tracked as Project 1 - 7 am - 11 am ( 4 hrs), Project 2 - 9 am - 1 pm ( 4 hrs), and Project 3 - 12 pm to 4 pm ( 4 hrs), a cumulative total of 12 hrs. This practice is ongoing for as far back as I can track. There are hundreds of entries like this. And, These hours are eventually invoiced to the clients.

This practice seems questionable and unethical. Thoughts on what I should do?

[Anonymous]

Call the respective IG hotline. Unless they are working 12 hours a day and the software doesn't permit entry, then they are stealing.

[Anonymous]

Big D? That seemed commonplace when I was there. Are you the project manager? Is the partner the same across all the projects? Because the employees may have been instructed to bill accordingly from someone more senior.

[Anonymous]

It's all a scam anyway.

[Anonymous]

Do you have an access to IG or IG-like group?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work in a consulting industry where the billable hours are charged to the clients. Clients are mainly public entities; Local, State and federal governments.

Last week, I came across a couple questionable timesheets entries. While digging more into it, I have found that at least three employees are cheating on billable time. For example, Employee A works on three projects between 7am and 4 pm. The time between the three projects are tracked as Project 1 - 7 am - 11 am ( 4 hrs), Project 2 - 9 am - 1 pm ( 4 hrs), and Project 3 - 12 pm to 4 pm ( 4 hrs), a cumulative total of 12 hrs. This practice is ongoing for as far back as I can track. There are hundreds of entries like this. And, These hours are eventually invoiced to the clients.

This practice seems questionable and unethical. Thoughts on what I should do?

They may be multitasking but they should charge only for one project. Overlapping hours on 2 projects during the same timeslot is TOTALLY questionable. You should bring it up with them and HR.

[Anonymous]

Not your concern unless you’re the one managing the project or sending the bill to the client.

[Anonymous]

As a fed project manager, I suspect this happens all the time but I have no way to approve it. This is bc the consultants are on one large IDIQ and multiple offices use it so contractor staff can be working on projects I don't even know about. I've brought it up to a few folks and they acknowledge it may exist. Honestly, the blow back from contacting the IG is more than I want to deal with and am actively looking for a new job. And this is the kind of stuff I wish DOGE would actually go after.

[Anonymous]

Time to find a new job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a fed project manager, I suspect this happens all the time but I have no way to approve it. This is bc the consultants are on one large IDIQ and multiple offices use it so contractor staff can be working on projects I don't even know about. I've brought it up to a few folks and they acknowledge it may exist. Honestly, the blow back from contacting the IG is more than I want to deal with and am actively looking for a new job. And this is the kind of stuff I wish DOGE would actually go after.

You reached out to IG without proof? How idiotic is that??

[Anonymous]

Timesheets are total BS in the first place. They are not accurate even when not intentionally padded. They just make management feel like they know about the business.

[Anonymous]

Do you have an ethics hotline in your organization?
If yes, call and discuss with them.
It might be this one person does not understand how to enter their time.
OR it might be larger.

[Anonymous]

Obviously you can’t be working on two projects at the same time. This is fraud plain and simple. We all multitask yes but at the end of the day you prob spend 30 min in one project 30 min in the other: this is why law firms bill in 6 min increments, to minimize these shenanigans. Unless they know how to turn back time.

[Anonymous]

It’s a federal offense to lie on time cards to the federal government. When I was a contractor at a federal agency, five coworkers were terminated immediately for wrongful billing of hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not your concern unless you’re the one managing the project or sending the bill to the client.

It’s a problem if PP is certifying timesheets.