I caught my colleague inflating her husband's burial expenses by N500k

I work in HR for a parastatal in Abuja. Last year one of our staff, a woman I have known for years, lost her husband suddenly. The office did the usual thing, we collected contributions, management approved a welfare payment. Standard procedure. She submitted receipts for the burial, transport for relatives, food for mourners. Everything looked normal until I crosschecked one of the receipts with the vendor. The actual cost was N150k. She claimed N650k. The difference went into her account.

I sat on that information for three weeks. My colleague is a widow with three children. The system is already hard on women like her. But the policy says one thing and the reality says another. I ended up quietly adjusting the claim and having a private conversation with her. She cried. Said she needed the extra to pay school fees for her first son who was about to be sent home. I did not report her officially. I told her this was the only time I would cover for her. She has not looked me in the eye since.

Sometimes I wonder if I did the right thing. The policy says she should have been fired. But her children would have suffered more. Bureaucracy at its finest. I just hope she uses that second chance well.