Commission of Internal Investigation order. Order to conduct an internal investigation sample form. The document must include the following categories of information
An employee who has committed some disciplinary offense or caused damage to the property of his employer should know that these actions must be followed by a mandatory review of all circumstances. This check also called an internal investigation. And this procedure is stipulated by the relevant legislative framework. Let's consider this issue in more detail.
By the letter of the law
Labor Code Russian Federation does not directly indicate that an internal investigation should be a necessary step before an employee who has committed misconduct or caused damage to the employer:
- any penalty will be imposed;
- an order was issued to compensate them for damages.
But in certain cases, the Labor Code of the Russian Federation stipulates the procedure for actions that the employer must take when conducting official investigation.
It should be noted: to persons working for government and/or municipal service, as well as in security forces, another term is used - internal audit.
How to do it
Article 193 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation sets out the procedure for imposing a disciplinary sanction. It states that:
- After discovering misconduct or damage, the employer requires a written explanation from the employee. The employee must submit this document to management no later than 2 days. In the event that he refuses written explanations, a corresponding act is drawn up about this fact.
- The employer decides what disciplinary sanction specified in Art. 192 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, it is advisable to apply to the employee. He does this based on:
- on the received written explanations of the employee or an act of refusal of such explanations;
- to a report or memo from the direct supervisor of this employee;
- information about the electronic pass system for the enterprise;
- other information.
Members of the commission, conducting an internal investigation at the enterprise, are obliged to demand an explanation from the employee. Definitely in writing. If he refuses to write an explanation or evades giving any comments regarding his commission of a disciplinary offense or the fact of causing any damage to the employer’s property, the commission issues an appropriate act.
An employee of any company is necessarily responsible for something. He is responsible for the computer on which he works in the office, for the assets that are stored in his warehouse, and even for information, the disclosure of which amounts to a violation of trade secrets.
And if the material or intangible assets entrusted to him were damaged or lost, the employer has the right to find out the cause of the damage. To do this, an order is issued to conduct an internal investigation at the enterprise.
What is the document for?
When an organization, during an audit or as a result of another action, discovers a shortage of assets, loss of property or documents, information leakage, etc., it is necessary:
- establish the amount of damage;
- find out the cause of its occurrence;
- find the culprit, who does not have to be the employee who is responsible for the safety of the lost or damaged asset.
For this purpose a commission is appointed, which should include specialists capable of assessing the damage caused and finding out its cause. This usually includes a legal adviser, a security officer, an economist (or Chief Accountant), engineer and other persons. Creation of this body allowed Labor Code RF (Article 247).
The purpose of the commission is an internal investigation, the conduct of which is the responsibility of the employer in accordance with labor legislation RF. This obligation must be fulfilled before a decision is made to punish a specific employee.
Without this investigation, even if the employee is guilty, he will have the right to appeal the decision to punish him in court.
The creation of a commission and the need to conduct an investigation are formalized by an order for the enterprise.
Who compiles it?
Compiled this order a secretary or other authorized person based on a decision by the head of the organization, made on the recommendation of the head of the security service or the head of the department where the damage was discovered.
Basic provisions
This document is compiled in any form on the organization's letterhead, which indicates its name and legal address. The text must contain the serial number of the paper, the date and place of compilation (the city is indicated) and the title “On conducting an official investigation.”
The document begins with an indication of the reason for its preparation: “In connection with …”, “Because of …”, etc.
- indicated need for investigation. For example: “Conduct an official investigation into the fact of damage (loss, disclosure) ...”;
- the next paragraph indicates appointment of a commission to verify the circumstances of the damage caused. The positions and names of its members are listed;
- the last point is appointment of a person who must provide control for the execution of the order. This person can be either the manager himself or another person. To do this, an entry is made: “Control of the execution of the order is assigned to (position, full name).”
Next is the signature of the manager, its decoding and position ( CEO, director, etc.). After this, the phrase “The order has been read” is written, and each of the appointed members of the commission must sign and decipher his signature.
Order on internal investigation- an executive document by which the management of the enterprise authorizes officials to check for violations. This is the only thing legal basis to investigate incidents in the organization.
Employees appointed by order of the manager conduct an investigation, identify the perpetrators and calculate the amount of damage. Based on the results of the inspection, a punishment is assigned.
Upon registration employment contract with a new employee, the administration of the enterprise includes a section in the agreement with job responsibilities persons, as well as a list of violations for which legal and disciplinary liability may occur. A complete list of circumstances is recorded depending on the specifics production process.
Most often, an internal investigation against an employee is carried out in connection with:
- damage to company property, which is associated with material damage;
- violation of the integrity or quality of goods and other assets of the enterprise used for trading activities and making a profit;
- non-compliance with working hours or evasion of work duties;
- failure to comply with the secrecy regime.
A list of possible violations is compiled depending on the position. For example, directors of enterprises may also additionally be responsible for negative results of the production process or a drop in profits, which is associated with the inability to organize workers in the enterprise.
An order to conduct an internal audit (a sample can be downloaded below) is prepared within a limited time frame. Maximum term bringing the perpetrators to justice - four months. The dismissal of an employee is not grounds for canceling a penalty.
Prosecution for damage corporate ownership or other violations are associated with a restriction of the rights of the violator, therefore special attention should be paid to the procedure for organizing an internal audit.
Preparing an order to organize an official investigation is a right, not an obligation. Therefore, the manager independently decides whether it is advisable to punish a specific person for the identified offense.
Labor law provides for the following procedure:
- Identification of violation. Any official of the enterprise who prepares a memo to the head of the company can establish the fact of misconduct. Along with the report, an Act on the identified misconduct is submitted, which is signed by at least three employees of the organization.
- Based on the received message, the chief prepares and issues an Order to conduct an internal investigation. The document indicates the responsible persons, the timing of the inspection and the list of activities.
- During the day it is formed special commission, which considers the circumstances of the commission of the offense and its consequences for the proceedings.
- Obtaining an explanation from the employee. The employee may refuse to provide explanations. In this case, an Act is drawn up, which states that the employee does not want to justify his actions in writing or orally.
- Organization of a commission meeting at which the final decision on prosecution is made. It is mandatory to take into account the opinions of all participants.
The completed decision is sent to the manager for review and receipt of a resolution to implement the penalty.
Rules for forming a commission
In total, there must be at least three members of the commission who are not interested in making a specific decision on the dispute. Includes:
- firm lawyer;
- Security Council representative;
- accountant;
- two ordinary employees.
The chief can also be a member, but this is not a mandatory condition.
Recording the results
The decision is formalized in two documents. Namely:
- Conclusion of the commission meeting (contains detailed description identified circumstances, the amount of damage caused, the perpetrators, the consequences of the offense for the enterprise);
- Order on the application of disciplinary measures.
The first document is drawn up by the convened commission and signed by all its participants. The second is prepared by the secretary of the head of the company on behalf of the boss. The manager signs the Order and submits its original for registration in a special Journal. After this, the paper is sent to the personnel department to enter information into the personal file.
If the punishment is associated with monetary encumbrances, then another original order is sent to the company’s accounting department.
The application of disciplinary liability standards does not exclude the additional application of administrative, criminal or civil sanctions.
As noted above, it is possible to bring the guilty person to justice only for a limited time. Thus, the employer is authorized to issue such orders no later than four months after the commission of the offense.
Interestingly, the employee himself can file a complaint against illegal actions of management only within 30 days.
This difference is due to the fact that violations by employees cannot always be identified in a timely manner, and therefore it is possible to hold accountable even those persons whose contract has long been terminated.
The deadlines may be extended if during this period the potentially guilty person was on vacation or sick leave. Inspection in absentia is not permitted.
Requirements for placing an order
The legislation does not provide for a single form of the Order, therefore, at each enterprise, orders from managers are prepared based on the specifics of their business. labor activity. The document must include the following mandatory details:
- legal address and name of the company where the internal investigation is being conducted;
- Date of preparation;
- place of registration;
- date and signatures of responsible persons.
The document must include the following categories of information:
- grounds for conducting an inspection (memorandum of a specific official);
- the need to convene a commission and its composition;
- a list of activities to be carried out for a comprehensive study of the circumstances of the offense;
- rules for recording results;
- deadlines for conducting the investigation;
- responsible person to whom supervisory functions are delegated.
The order is subject to mandatory execution by all participants. The guilty citizen himself must read the contents of the Order against his signature, which indicates his familiarization with the decision made and confirms his agreement with it. At this stage, the employee may refuse to sign, about which a report is also drawn up.
If the Order is issued in violation of the established procedure or the penalty is imposed illegally, then the employee whose rights were violated can apply to the labor dispute commission to cancel the punishment and organize a re-investigation. If the conflict has not been resolved within a week, then you will have to deal with statement of claim to court.
Many subjects entrepreneurial activity are faced with unscrupulous employees, against whom they are forced to initiate internal investigations. Such events are most often a forced measure, since there are enough preventative conversations with minor violators of corporate peace.
Important! For minor violations, a written explanation is obtained from the employee. If necessary, it is compiled memo(sample located above), on the basis of which he will be subject to disciplinary action.
If the head of the organization suspects an employee of theft Money or transfer of commercial information to third parties, he insists on conducting an official investigation against him. For these purposes, an order is issued (a sample can be found below), by which the person suspected of violation corporate ethics the employee is temporarily suspended from work professional responsibilities.
To check disciplinary violations, the head of the organization forms a special commission, whose responsibilities include studying the reasons:
- absenteeism;
- refusal to sign the contract financial liability;
- evasion of recertification, medical examination;
- refusal of safety instructions, etc.
What does this term mean?
The legislation in force in the Russian Federation does not provide a clear definition of the term “internal investigation”. Many business entities classify it as disciplinary proceedings. When conducting an investigation, managers are guided by this very procedure, which sets out the rules for bringing employees to disciplinary liability.
Important! In each organization, such events are regulated by internal regulations. When conducting an investigation (the basis is an order, a sample of which can be found a little lower), the rules are taken into account internal regulations, which may not provide for the suspension of the employee during the inspection.
Rules
An internal investigation, which is initiated by the company's management against a full-time employee, is an internal event (initiated by an internal memo or order). The employer has the legal right to invite the offending employee to a conversation or to involve his security service in this process, which arranges a real “interrogation with bias.” If testimony from strangers is needed to confirm the guilt or innocence of an employee, then witnesses may also be involved in the investigation procedure. They are usually invited for a conversation, having agreed on a convenient time in advance. If witnesses do not want to take part in official investigations, they can refuse the offer.
As for the participation of an employee on the organization’s staff in these events, it is also voluntary. Neither the manager nor the security service has the right to force a violator to undergo a polygraph test. Federal legislation In Russia, employers are prohibited from conducting a search of personal belongings and examining an employee, since only representatives of law and order are vested with such powers. If an expert opinion is needed to make a conclusion regarding the guilty person, then the company management can invite an outside specialist who will be present during the investigation.
Start of check
To begin an internal investigation against an employee, the manager must issue an order (a sample is located a little lower in the text). This internal document will regulate the procedure for conducting the inspection, its time, place and others. important points.
During the investigation, all documents that may serve as evidence of the employee’s guilt will be examined:
- written explanation from the employee (sample is located a little lower);
- statement of the offender;
- collective complaint;
- auditor's report;
- inventory act, etc.
Important! The head of the organization issues an order for each action regarding the violator. This document is sent to the HR department for further processing.
Who can act as an “investigator”
In most cases, every commercial enterprise today there is a personal security service (we are not talking about small companies with several people). Its employees are entrusted with verification of integrity employees. The internal audit service is temporarily involved in this process (in small organizations, these functions are performed by the personnel service).
Third parties may be involved in the internal investigation procedure. In order to invite outside experts, the manager must issue a corresponding order (it specifies exact time holding events). The following specialists can give their conclusion regarding the guilt of the employee (he is being removed from his position):
- engineers;
- technologists;
- auditors;
- medical workers;
- appraisers, etc.
Attention! Federal legislation in force in Russia allows for various requests to be sent to government authorities. This need arises in complicated cases when the offending employee refuses to give an explanation.
Purposes of the audit
The main task an internal investigation (suspension from work is not taken into account) is evidence of the commission of an unlawful act against the company. The expert commission will have to collect evidence and establish:
- guilt of a staff member;
- the degree of damage caused to the company (downtime is taken into account, since the order provides for the removal of the employee from office);
- the nature of the offense;
- motives for the disciplinary offense committed;
- presence of aggravating or mitigating circumstances, etc.
Important! Russian legislation allocates a period of 1 month for conducting internal investigations. It is calculated from the date of issue of the order. A violator whose guilt has been fully proven and supported by relevant documents may be subject to disciplinary action within 6 months from the date of committing the unlawful act.
Registration of results
Based on the results of the internal investigation, the employer issues an order, the basis for which will be collected documents. After this, an act is drawn up, consisting of several parts, signed by all participants in the inspection, certified by a seal. The date of drawing up this document will be the day the investigation is completed.
Important! The act is registered in a special journal, which contains condensed information on the verification. In the presence of aggravating circumstances, management turns to representatives of the law, who initiate criminal proceedings against the violator.
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Some cases that occur during the activities of certain institutions and organizations attract special attention from management.
In certain cases, a whole complex of actions is required to establish the facts of what happened, the causes and possible consequences for an organization or its employees - an internal investigation.
Stages of an internal investigation
Inspections in the form of internal investigations are prescribed in cases that are quite outside the general framework of normal work activity. Often, these are serious disciplinary offenses or emergency situations that occurred at work.
An official or internal investigation is carried out in order to establish the culprit or the degree of guilt of a particular company employee in an incident, the facts that served as the motive or cause, the actions, the consequences that resulted or could result specific action or situation.
The conduct of official work is initiated by the desire of the manager when he becomes aware of circumstances about which it is not possible to draw an objective conclusion in the usual way or from the reports of subordinates.
In cases of industrial accidents or personal injury, service inspections are necessary, since this is not only a legal requirement, but also a real necessity, since the damage caused requires punishment of the perpetrators and proportionate compensation.
An internal investigation is carried out by a special group of authorized employees - a commission appointed by management. The head of the company himself can also take part in the work of such a commission and lead it, or simply receive the result of the group’s work and analyze it.
All actions of the commission to conduct an internal audit begin, and the commission itself is convened after the relevant order is issued. The head of the document establishes the powers of the members of the commission during an internal investigation and fixes its numerical composition. An order to conduct an internal investigation, a sample of which can be downloaded on the website, describes the incident that requires an internal investigation.
The results of an internal investigation may entail not only disciplinary liability before the employer, and may well serve as grounds for initiating a criminal case or filing a civil lawsuit against the perpetrator. Based on the serious consequences of such an event, it is necessary to carry out an internal audit of sufficient quality, fully analyzing all the cause-and-effect relationships and motives of the persons who were participants in the event that required an investigation.
