Rat my colleague out, or not?

I would have to say something, perhaps anonymously.
There are two kinds of people I can’t tolerate: One is a liar, one is a thief.

You say that you’ve known your colleague for 10 years. Do you have any knowledge of his own financial situation? Is it possible that he’s as desperate as many of the charity’s clients, perhaps even hungry?

I’m not trying to justify his stealing. I’m simply wondering if there might be another side to this story. If yes, you could be in a position to help him rather than make him lose his job.

How well do you know your friend? How much do you care for him? These questions need answers because whatever you end up doing, the last thing you want is him lying telling others you knew what he was doing or that you split the stolen money between you.

If he’s that kind of guy who would maliciously drag you with him out of anger, then inform on him right away, and request to be anonymous if possible.

If he’s not that kind of malicious friend who respects you, listens to you and would feel some shame knowing that you know of his thievery and would stop if you ask him in exchange for you keeping it a secret, then feel free to ask him to stop. But this is just me.

Someone else in your shoes might actually ask your friend to come out clean and confess what he did.

Your friend, if he is truly a good one should be aware he had put you in a tough position already. He should stop and just do the right thing.

Is there any form of cross checking exist for the work hours you guys are putting in? There must be someone above you in the heirarchy who would be doing that. If the system is really rotten it is possible that those above in the chain are already aware of it? Since you know this guy well you can take a call to confront him directly or act as a whistleblower if there is possibility of the things as I described above. In that case it would be best to remain anonymous and report it to the highest authority where it will be heard for sure.

I suggest you keep your eyes and ears open if only to discover the extent of the corruption. Perhaps your acquaintance is not alone in defrauding the poor, or perhaps he was acually told to add the extra time to correct some past shortfall in pay due him. I think you need more information.

If I can, I would talk to your colleague first and see if you can persuade him to stop. If he doesn’t , you might have to rat him out.

Edit: Should have written, “If you can…”

Depending on your personal dynamics with him, I’d do one of two things.

1.) Talk to him about it.

2.) If there is a physical log of everyone’s hours, I would just put a question mark next to the ones that you know they didn’t actually do. Either your friend or someone higher up will straighten it out.

Drop a bug in the supervisor/manager’s ear. Don’t name names, just tell him he needs to look at time sheets compared with when people are there. If he notices the irregularities, he can deal with the colleague. If he doesn’t notice them or if he doesn’t bother to look, then I would stop worrying about it.

OK, guys, and gals, it was quite good to read all kinds of different takes on the matter.
Thanks!
Here’s some extra information (some I forgot to mention, some you’ve asked for):
First off, I can’t be 100% sure, of course, that he has written his name himself (but I do think he did).
Second, it could be a mistake (this angle I will choose, by the way, when I confront him next week, with my observation; I’m planning to tell him that I think he accidentally wrote his name on the wrong (day) form, and see how he reacts).
Informing a supervisor, in the manner that @seawulf575 suggests, would feel, to me, like a semi rat move (which I could live with, if my colleague turned out to be a thief).

My colleague, by the way, is a very charming, warm guy, that is moderately well off.
He does, however, very often talk about money; how he got discounts where he wasn’t really deserving it, how he goes to as many parties, because they serve free booze and beers.
All in all, he’s a bit a Scrooge, is how we would call such a person?

Thanks again for your answers, they’ve truly helped me make up my mind.

I mean, if it was me i’d auction off these people for slavery & have your colleague spat on by a dog with dripping gums, but like I say, that’s just me.