Article 65. The procedure for conducting an internal investigation The Law on Special State Bodies of the Republic of Kazakhstan

     1. Internal investigation is the activity of collecting and verifying materials and information about an employee's misconduct in order to fully, comprehensively and objectively clarify the circumstances of its commission.

     2. An internal investigation is conducted in order to identify the causes and conditions that contributed to its commission, identify the perpetrators and ensure the principle of the inevitability of punishment or the exclusion of unjustified prosecution of an employee.

     3. The grounds for conducting an internal investigation may be:

     1) reports, statements, complaints and letters;

     2) facts of offenses and incidents;

     3) Audit results;

     4) the results of the audit of the educational, operational and service activities of the units;

     5) reports from the bodies of inquiry, investigation and court;

     6) communications from officials, organizations, and the media;

7) case materials received from the relevant state bodies to resolve the issue of bringing an employee to disciplinary responsibility for committing offenses provided for by the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan on administrative offenses.

     4. An internal investigation is appointed by order of an authorized head and is conducted by an authorized official within a period of no more than fifteen working days.

     Conducting official investigations without an order is not allowed.

     In exceptional cases, the term of the internal investigation may be extended by order of the authorized head who appointed the internal investigation for a period of no more than ten working days.

     The term of an internal investigation begins on the day of its appointment and expires on the last day of the established period.

     5. If an employee commits a misdemeanor, a written explanation is required from him. If, in the explanation, the employee agrees with the fact that he has committed a misdemeanor, for consideration of which it is not necessary to obtain information from other subjects, officials, or conduct additional verification measures, or an on-site inspection, then the authorized supervisor has the right to impose disciplinary action, with the exception of penalties in the form of a warning about incomplete official compliance, reduction in a special a one-step rank and dismissal for negative reasons, without conducting an internal investigation.

     Disciplinary penalties in the form of a reduction in a special rank by one step below and dismissal for negative reasons are imposed based on the results of an internal investigation, taking into account the proposals of the disciplinary commission.

     If an employee does not agree in his written explanation with the fact that he has committed a misconduct, an internal investigation must be ordered by the authorized head no later than three working days from the date of the discovery of the misconduct in accordance with the procedure established by this Law.

     6. To conduct an internal investigation, an authorized official is appointed as the head, who is equal to or above the position of the employee who committed the misconduct.

     If it is impossible to appoint an authorized official who is equal or higher in rank to the position of the employee who committed the misconduct, it is allowed to appoint a person from the management team who is equal or higher in rank to the employee who committed the misconduct.

     If necessary, in order to obtain conclusions, explanations and consultations on issues requiring special knowledge, employees of the relevant field of operational activities may be involved in conducting an internal investigation as specialists, as indicated in the order.

     If necessary, the authorized head may release the authorized official and specialists from their official duties for the duration of the internal investigation, as indicated in the order.

     7. An employee who is directly or indirectly interested in the results of an internal investigation may not participate. In this case, he is obliged to contact the person who made the decision to conduct an internal investigation with a written report on his release from participation in the conduct of this investigation. In case of non-compliance with this requirement, the results of the internal investigation are considered invalid.

     8. An employee is brought to disciplinary responsibility only for the offense for which his guilt has been established.

     9. An employee who has committed illegal actions (shown inaction) intentionally or negligently is found guilty of committing a misdemeanor.

     10. A misdemeanor is considered to have been committed intentionally if the employee who committed it was aware of the unlawful nature of his action (inaction), foresaw its harmful consequences and desired or consciously allowed these consequences to occur or treated them indifferently.

     11. A misdemeanor is recognized as negligent if the employee who committed it foresaw the possibility of harmful consequences of his action (inaction), but without sufficient reason thoughtlessly counted on their prevention or did not foresee the possibility of such consequences, although with due care and foresight he should have and could have foreseen them.

     12. An internal investigation may be suspended by order of the authorized head in the following cases::

     1) unauthorized abandonment by an employee of a duty station;

     2) the employee's stay on vacation, business trip;

     3) the illness of an employee confirmed in accordance with the procedure established by law;

     4) conducting examinations (studies) established by the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan that require a long time;

     5) in other cases that impede an internal investigation.

     13. An internal investigation is resumed by order of the authorized head, if there are no grounds for its suspension.

     14. During the internal investigation, it is established:

     1) the content and nature of the offense, the time, place, method and other circumstances of its commission;

     2) the existence and nature of the consequences of misconduct;

     3) the amount of damage caused;

     4) the person who committed the offense;

     5) circumstances excluding, mitigating or aggravating the employee's responsibility;

     6) the reasons and conditions that contributed to the commission of misconduct;

     7) data characterizing the identity of the employee who committed the offense;

     8) the employee's guilt in committing misconduct, the presence of intent or negligence, and the motives for committing misconduct;

     9) other circumstances relevant to the decision to hold an employee accountable.

     15. Circumstances mitigating disciplinary liability are recognized as:

     1) the repentance of the employee who committed the offense;

     2) voluntary notification by an employee of his misconduct to his supervisors;

     3) prevention by an employee who has committed a misdemeanor of the harmful consequences of the misconduct, voluntary compensation for the damage caused or elimination of the damage caused;

     4) committing a misdemeanor under difficult personal or family circumstances;

     5) committing a misdemeanor as a result of coercion;

     6) committing a misdemeanor in violation of the conditions of legality of necessary defense, extreme necessity, detention of a person who committed an unlawful encroachment, execution of an order or command.

     A supervisor who applies a penalty to an employee may recognize other circumstances as mitigating.

     16. Circumstances aggravating disciplinary liability are recognized as:

     1) continuation of the illegal action (inaction) despite the demand of the supervisor to stop it;

     2) repeated commission of the same offense, if a penalty has already been applied to the employee for the first offense and it has not been lifted in accordance with the established procedure.;

     3) committing a misdemeanor by a group;

     4) involving a subordinate in the commission of misconduct;

     5) committing a misdemeanor motivated by national, racial and religious hatred or enmity;

     6) committing a misdemeanor out of revenge for the lawful actions of other persons, as well as in order to conceal another misdemeanor or facilitate its commission;

     7) committing a misdemeanor by influencing an official or his relatives in connection with the performance of his duties;

     8) committing misconduct on duty, serving in a daily outfit, while performing a special task, as well as in emergency situations of a natural or man-made nature;

     9) committing a misdemeanor in a state of alcoholic, narcotic, psychotropic, substance abuse intoxication (their analogues).

     Other circumstances not mentioned in this Law may not be considered aggravating disciplinary liability.

     17. In the course of an internal investigation, the authorized official who is charged with conducting it has the right:

     1) receive a written explanation from the employee being disciplined, as well as from other persons;

     2) collect materials confirming the employee's guilt in committing misconduct;

     3) get acquainted with the relevant documents, if necessary, attach copies of them to the materials of the internal investigation;

     4) to receive opinions, explanations and consultations from specialists on issues requiring special knowledge;

     5) travel to the place where the offense was committed.

     18. Employees are required to provide assistance to an authorized official appointed to conduct an internal investigation and are personally responsible for the accuracy of the information provided.

19. Information about the commission of misconduct by an employee, confirming or refuting the fact of its commission, may be in any form.

     20. If, during an internal investigation, it turns out that an employee's misconduct contains signs of a criminal offense, the supervisor immediately reports to a higher-level supervisor.

     21. Upon completion of the internal investigation, an opinion on its results is drawn up with conclusions and proposals, which is submitted for approval to the authorized head who appointed the internal investigation.

     After approving the conclusion on the results of the internal investigation, the authorized official is obliged to familiarize the employee against whom it was conducted with the conclusion, and also, at the request of the employee, with the materials of the internal investigation.

     If an employee refuses to review the report on the results of an internal investigation, an appropriate act is drawn up. His refusal does not suspend the issuance of an order on the results of an internal investigation or the imposition of a disciplinary penalty.

     The materials of the official investigation into the senior officers, as well as a request for consideration of the issue of imposing disciplinary punishment in the form of a reduction in a special rank by one step, are sent to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

     22. An employee in respect of whom an internal investigation is being conducted has the right:

     1) provide a written explanation on the merits of the ongoing internal investigation;

     2) to file petitions, provide evidence and other documents;

     3) appeal against decisions and actions (inaction) employees conducting an internal investigation, to the head of a special government agency or an authorized head who made the decision to conduct an internal investigation;

     4) to get acquainted with the materials of the official investigation at the end of the official investigation, if this does not contradict the requirements of non-disclosure of information constituting state secrets and other legally protected secrets.

     23. The materials of the internal investigation in respect of employees who, on the grounds of this Law, are subject to dismissal for negative reasons, disciplinary punishment in the form of a reduction in a special rank by one step, as well as persons who disagree with the conclusions and proposals of the internal investigation, are subject to consideration by the disciplinary commission.

     24. If an employee who is being investigated refuses to give a written explanation, an appropriate act is drawn up. His refusal does not suspend the internal investigation. In this case, the employee is heard by the disciplinary commission.

The Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated February 13, 2012 No. 552-IV.

This Law defines the status of special state bodies of the Republic of Kazakhstan (hereinafter referred to as special state bodies), regulates public relations related to admission to service in special state bodies, its passage and termination, and also defines the legal status, financial support and social protection of employees of special state bodies.

President    

Republic of Kazakhstan     

© 2012. RSE na PHB "Institute of Legislation and Legal Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan" of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan  

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