By Chuck Gallagher — Defense Ethics Keynote Speaker and Trainer
The smallest lie in the building
It was the end of the week. The team was exhausted. A deadline had slipped, and the program manager was under pressure to show progress.
A young engineer stared at their timesheet and hesitated.
They had spent part of Thursday helping a teammate solve a technical issue—important work, but not clearly tied to the charge code they’d been assigned. Their supervisor leaned in and said something that sounded harmless, even practical:
“Just put it on the project code. We’ll straighten it out later.”
No shouting. No threats. No dramatic fraud scheme.
Just a casual decision made in a tired moment.
And that’s how timekeeping ethics breaks down in defense contracting: not through criminal masterminds, but through ordinary people being trained—quietly—to treat accuracy as optional.
The above was an example that became the reason for inviting me to work with their company. The In my work as a defense ethics keynote speaker and trainer, I’ve learned something that surprises leaders:
Most timekeeping problems aren’t caused by “bad employees.”
They’re caused by bad habits, weak leadership signals, and a culture that treats ethics like paperwork.
Why timekeeping is one of the most underestimated ethical risks in defense contracting
Timekeeping doesn’t feel like “ethics” to most employees.
It feels like admin.
It feels like something you do quickly at the end of the day, or worse, at the end of the week when you’re trying to remember what you even did on Tuesday.
But in government contracting, timekeeping is not just internal bookkeeping.
It’s a representation to the government.
It’s tied to billing, labor charging, indirect rates, cost allocation, and compliance. And when time is mischarged—whether intentionally or “accidentally”—it can trigger consequences that are wildly out of proportion to the minutes involved.
That’s why I tell organizations:
I don’t deliver ethics training. I build ethical decision-making reflexes under pressure.
Because timekeeping isn’t where people fail when they’re calm.
They fail when they’re rushed, behind schedule, and trying to please a boss.
The “Just This Once” trap: how ethical drift becomes normal
Timekeeping violations rarely start with someone saying:
“Let’s commit fraud.”
They start with someone saying:
- “It’s close enough.”
- “Nobody checks this stuff.”
- “I’m still working for the company, so it’s all the same.”
- “Charge it here or we’ll blow the budget.”
- “You’re making this a bigger deal than it is.”
This is ethical drift.
And once drift becomes routine, the organization starts to develop a dangerous belief:
Accuracy is negotiable.
That belief spreads fast.
And it doesn’t stay in timekeeping.
It infects:
- cost charging decisions
- documentation habits
- quality reporting
- cybersecurity representations
- subcontractor oversight
- and eventually, leadership credibility
Because when a company tolerates small dishonesty, it trains people to tolerate bigger dishonesty later.
The real cost of timekeeping misconduct isn’t the money—it’s the trust
If a timekeeping issue surfaces, the immediate question leaders ask is:
“How much did it cost us?”
But the better question is:
“What did it reveal about our culture?”
Because the moment timekeeping becomes sloppy, you don’t just have a compliance risk.
You have a trust risk.
And trust is everything in the defense contracting ecosystem.
Customers don’t just want delivery. They want reliability. They want transparency. They want integrity in how work is recorded, charged, billed, and reported.
And internally, employees are watching too.
They notice who gets away with what.
They notice what leadership ignores.
They notice what gets enforced selectively.
And if they conclude that ethics is optional, they stop taking it seriously.
A public example: when billing misconduct becomes a settlement
To show how real this is, consider a publicly reported DOJ settlement involving Navmar Applied Sciences Corporation, where allegations included double billing and cost shifting on Navy contracts.
I’m not sharing this to attack any one organization.
I’m sharing it because it illustrates the bigger lesson:
When cost charging and billing discipline break down, the consequences aren’t theoretical.
They become public, expensive, and disruptive.
And what’s even more important—these cases rarely come out of nowhere. They grow from weak controls, poor training, and normalized shortcuts.
Why employees mischarge time (even when they’re good people)
If you want to prevent timekeeping problems, you have to understand the psychology behind them.
Here are the most common drivers:
1) Confusion
Employees don’t know which code to use—or don’t understand the consequences of picking the wrong one.
2) Convenience
The “right” code requires extra steps, approvals, or explanations.
3) Pressure
Budget pressure, schedule pressure, or leadership pressure drives mischarging.
4) Fear
Employees fear being blamed for overruns, so they hide time elsewhere.
5) Rationalization
“If I’m working hard, it’s all for the company anyway.”
That last one is especially dangerous because it feels moral.
But in government contracting, “I worked hard” is not the same as “I charged correctly.”
The uncomfortable truth: timekeeping is a leadership issue
Timekeeping failures often reveal a deeper leadership reality:
People don’t mischarge time because they don’t know the rules.
They mischarge time because they don’t believe the rules matter.
And that belief comes from culture.
If managers say:
- “Be accurate,”
but react with anger when the numbers don’t look good…
employees learn to protect themselves, not the truth.
If leaders say:
- “We want integrity,”
but reward only speed and results…
employees learn what the real priority is.
What effective timekeeping ethics training looks like (and why most programs fail)
Most organizations treat timekeeping training as:
- a one-time onboarding topic
- a short annual refresher
- a compliance checkbox
But that approach fails because timekeeping errors happen in real moments:
- end of day fatigue
- end of week panic
- shifting tasks
- unclear assignments
- changing priorities
- poor project communication
So effective training must be:
Scenario-based
Not “here’s the policy,” but:
- “You worked 2 hours on an unplanned issue. What code do you use?”
- “Your manager says charge it to a different project. What do you do?”
- “You forgot to enter time for two days. How do you correct it?”
Manager-focused
Because managers create the pressure environment.
Reinforced with language
Teams need simple ethical scripts like:
- “I want to do that, but I need the correct charge code.”
- “I can’t guess—I need confirmation.”
- “I’m happy to help, but I need to document it correctly.”
Supported by a speak-up culture
If employees can’t ask questions safely, they will make quiet mistakes—or quiet compromises.
A simple framework: The “3-Second Timekeeping Ethics Check”
Here’s a tool I teach because it’s fast and memorable:
Before you submit time, ask:
- Is it true?
Did I actually work those hours on that task? - Is it right?
Is this the correct code and correct allocation? - Is it defensible?
If someone reviewed this later, could I explain it confidently?
If the answer isn’t yes across the board, pause and fix it.
That pause—those three seconds—can prevent months of fallout.
Final thought: ethics is built in the small things
Timekeeping ethics doesn’t feel heroic.
No one gets promoted for charging the right code.
No one gets applause for submitting accurate time.
But in defense contracting, those “small things” are exactly what build credibility over time.
Because integrity isn’t proven when it’s convenient.
Integrity is proven when it costs you something:
- time
- comfort
- approval
- or the ability to “just move on”
The organizations that thrive long-term are the ones that train their people to treat accuracy as a form of respect:
- respect for the mission
- respect for the customer
- respect for taxpayer funds
- and respect for their own reputation
If you’re a defense contractor leader, here’s the question worth asking:
Do your employees treat timekeeping as paperwork… or as trust?
If you want to build an ethical awareness program that prevents shortcuts, strengthens culture, and protects your contracts, I’d love to help.
As always, I welcome your comments and I’m happy to respond. Feel free to share your thoughts below—especially if you’ve seen “just this once” become something bigger.
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