An internal audit is carried out in cases where an incident has occurred that requires an investigation, when it is not possible to establish and then punish the guilty employee. Most often this is due to negligence or theft at work. Each manager must know how and in what time frame an internal audit is carried out at the enterprise.
Office check: what is it?
An internal audit is an investigation during which it is established which of the employees is guilty of an incident and for what reasons it occurred. As a rule, it is carried out as part of the public service, although often commercial firms also need to be checked. But in this case, local acts are necessarily approved. Typically, checks are carried out in large concerns.
Despite the fact that the law does not spell out the procedure for conducting an investigation in commercial structures, all measures must be carried out correctly, and the internal audit must be completed exactly at the indicated time. Each stage is documented, it is mandatory during it must be found solid evidence of the guilt of the employee. If the inspectors do not adhere to the basic rules, then the person with whom the proceedings are proceeding has the right to contact the labor inspectorate.
The legislation of the Russian Federation spells out only the concept of verification, which is carried out in relation to public services. All rules are spelled out in Federal Law No. 79 of 2017. And if the checks are carried out in relation to the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, then order No. 161 of 2013 is valid for them.
In what cases is a check scheduled?
The Labor Code of Russia does not have the exact concept of “internal investigation”, but penalties for negligence are prescribed by a set of rules. However, no disciplinary sanction is not imposed without justification only if there are facts and they are documented.
For this, explanatory statements from all employees are compulsory, the scale of the damage caused is estimated, and it is important to find out if the employee’s actions had malicious intent. An internal audit should be completed on time and not a day more.
An official inspection is carried out in several cases:
- if the employee did not come to work and did not warn;
- if material damage has been caused;
- if the fact that the employee has abused his position is revealed.
A disciplinary sanction may be imposed on an employee for committing an offense; he may be dismissed under the article and obligated to pay off all the damage caused to him. In order for the actions of the employer to be justified, it is necessary to conduct an internal audit, and it must be completed precisely in time established by law.
The main tasks of verification
During an internal investigation, it is important to find out the following tasks:
- To establish the fact that it was this employee who committed the misconduct, and only on the basis of this a disciplinary sanction is imposed on him.
- Identify the time and circumstances of what happened, analyze all actions, determine the exact damage caused to the company or a specific person.
- Find the employee who committed the act.
- Determine the guilt of the person.
- To analyze the motives of the perfect act, additional circumstances.
The head of the company must necessarily approve the recommendations regarding the implementation of preventive measures, which are simply necessary to eliminate all the causes of a disciplinary violation.
Investigation Procedure
First, the head of the enterprise receives information that the act was committed, after which it is he who approves the decision to start an internal investigation. The term of an official audit is not more than a month. Most often, it takes at least 3 weeks, but in some circumstances it may take longer, which must be motivated. An investigation is carried out by a specially appointed employee or commission only on the basis of an order or special administrative documentation, which must include such information:
- reason for holding;
- members of the commission and its chairman;
- maximum period for conducting an internal audit;
- powers of the commission;
- terms in which the head of the enterprise should receive the results of the investigation.
As a rule, the commission includes personnel department staff, a representative of safety and finance. The chairman is responsible for her work.
The commission should not include family members and relatives of the guilty employee (including him). This may result in a biased solution.
An order to commence work of the commission, which must indicate the terms of the official audit of a civil servant, must be signed by all members of the commission, as well as the person who is accused of negligence.
Commission action if the employee did not go to work
An employee is given absenteeism only if he has not appeared at his workplace for 4 hours or more. But it is important to consider the reasons for his failure to appear, because they can be serious. Until they are clarified, it is believed that the employee did not come to work for an unexplained reason. If the employee does not have a good reason, and his failure to appear has led to serious consequences, the work process has been interrupted, then the employee may be reprimanded or fired. But there must be serious reasons for this, so there is no way to do without verification.
Initially, it is necessary to fix the fact that the employee was really absent from the workplace.
A memo can be written directly by the manager or any other employee. After appearing at work, a written explanation is taken from the employee for what reason he was not at the workplace. Good reasons to consider:
- Illness of the employee or his family members. This fact must be documented, a certificate issued by a medical institution or sick leave.
- Delay due to the fact that there was no transport that would deliver to the place of work. For example, if an accident occurred on the road or snowdrifts formed, which led to a stop of public transport.
- Unforeseen circumstances independent of the will of the worker. For example, during a trip to work, his transport had an accident.
Following article 81 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, if a person has not appeared at work throughout the day, then this fact can be considered absenteeism. An act drawn up on the same day will help to fix a failure to appear.
The document is compiled in free form, most importantly, it must accurately contain facts about the absence of an employee in the workplace, as well as time. It must be signed by members of the commission.
If the next day the employee did not appear at work, then it is necessary to draw up another act.
What actions are performed when damage is done?
Material damage may be caused to the company due to negligence or using malicious intent. An internal audit is carried out on time, and this is mandatory. During its implementation, it is important to find out for what reason and how exactly the damage was caused:
- the products were made with defects;
- the services are of inadequate quality;
- there is an appropriation of the property of the enterprise;
- the fact of non-compliance with safety rules is recorded;
- hardware damage detected.
In this situation, you need to establish the amount of damage. If theft occurred, then an inventory is carried out and an act is drawn up. Damage to property will require additional examination, and these conditions must also be met if safety regulations have been violated. For example, if a worker left work and forgot to turn off the heating device, resulting in a fire. In this case, only the expert commission can find out the amount of damage.
An internal audit should be completed by civil servants on time, and in the course of it, it is necessary to find out the motivation of the employee. It is important to understand whether the misconduct is negligent or if the employee maliciously damaged.
Abuse Actions
Abuse of position means the use of one's position for profit. In this case, the interests of the entire enterprise and its employees may be affected. One such example is the conclusion of a contract for the supply of goods at an inflated price when the counterparty pays "premium".
Identifying such violations can be much more difficult than it seems. Often, professional auditors and auditors cannot do without help.
Internal audit in the Ministry of Internal Affairs: rules and terms
Often inspections are held by the police, where it is necessary to establish the circumstances, reasons and nature of the disciplinary offense committed by one of the employees. During the investigation, the facts specified in Article 29 of the Federal Law No. 3 are necessarily established. The procedure can be carried out at the request of one of the employees.
The head instructs the authorized person to conduct an internal audit of the police officer, the deadline is set, in accordance with Order No. 161, for which a corresponding resolution is issued. It is allowed to draw up a specific act or fill out a special form, which indicates the date and number of the document to which it relates.
Order 161 also stipulates the time period for conducting an internal audit. It must be completed no later than 30 days after the document on the start of the meeting is drawn up and signed.
The period allotted for the internal audit does not include the employee’s incapacity for work when he is on vacation, business trip or sick leave, if he is absent from the service for other good reasons. All circumstances must be confirmed by a certificate issued by the personnel department.
The terms of the internal audit in the Ministry of Internal Affairs should not exceed one month from the date of issuance of the order on its conduct. If the last day of the inspection falls on a holiday or day off, then the day of its completion must be considered the previous working day.
How to check?
The head has the right to punish his employee only if all steps of the penalties procedure, which are precisely described in article 193 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, are observed. If at least one of the paragraphs of the protocol is violated, the accused employee has the right to appeal the decision in court and bring the administration to criminal liability.
All people included in the commission must follow the rules of procedure and adhere to such principles:
- all facts discovered should be objectively assessed; in no case should personal personal likes and dislikes be allowed to influence the course of the investigation;
- until proven guilty, which the facts confirm, the employee is presumed innocent;
- All actions of the commission should be carried out with strict observance of instructions and orders.
The manager must follow strictly within the law and use special instructions:
- issue an order to initiate an investigation;
- receive a written statement from an employee who is accused of negligence;
- memo from the head;
- complaints from the affected party or customers;
- memos from other employees;
- an inventory act that confirms the shortage;
- an act from the auditor;
- appointment of commission members;
- the term is stipulated, the internal audit must be completed no later than the specified date.
It is very important to get an explanatory note from the offending employee. In it, he must necessarily explain why he did so, which prompted him not to come to work or abuse his position. If he refuses to explain anything, then an act is drawn up.
Further activities depend on whether the offender gives an explanation or not.
Dates for conducting an internal audit
The law of the Russian Federation allows for a period of no more than a month for official inspection by the police, and in other organizations it should not exceed this number of days. The period from the date of signing the order is calculated. This is established by article 192 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
But the time for the trial can be increased if the employee, who is accused of negligence, was not at the workplace at that time due to inpatient treatment or other valid circumstances.
According to the Federal Law No. 133, the internal audit must be completed no later than 6 months after the date of signing the order.
If the commission for the allotted period of time has not made any decision, then the employee cannot be considered guilty, even if in the future the conclusion is not in his favor. If the commission managed to find evidence of the employee’s guilt, then he must be sentenced no later than 6 months from the date of the final act.
How are validated results of verification
After all the data has been collected and processed, a meeting is scheduled. At it, all members of the commission should discuss several important issues:
- Was a violation of labor activity revealed, in what is it expressed?
- What caused this act?
- What is the nature of the actions of the guilty employee?
- Were the consequences of this incident, what are they?
- Are there any special circumstances that will help to remove charges from him?
Only discussion can help to clarify all these points. All arguments must be recorded in the protocol. After the debate is over, a final act is drawn up, which necessarily consists of 3 parts:
- The introductory part consists of a description of the nature of the employee’s actions. It describes what exactly happened, at what time. The data on the members of the commission and their positions are entered. Indicated when an internal audit should be completed by civil servants or public service representatives.
- The second part describes all the actions that were taken to establish the guilt of the employee, and how exactly the evidence was collected.
- The conclusion, where the conclusions of the commission will be made.
A package of documents must be attached to this act:
- memos and memos;
- orders;
- Commission conclusion;
- and other documents with facts confirming the guilt of the employee.
The act and all its annexes are signed by each member of the commission.
Conclusion
Only an internal audit, which must be completed exactly on time, can accuse the employee of an offense. It is impossible to blame a person without evidence in any case. It is impossible to blame a person unfoundedly, because he has every right to go to court with a lawsuit against a leader who has slandered him.