51³Ô¹Ï

The Tribunal noted that the HM has broad discretionary power to exercise a preliminary evaluation of the released applicants in order to establish the shortlist of the most qualified candidates to be invited for further assessment, and that the Tribunal will not easily interfere with the Administration’s broad discretion in these matters and substitute its judgment for that of the competent decision maker. It further noted that the work experience requirement as listed in the vacancy announcement (VA) was already described in broad terms, thus opening the door to large discretion as to what...

The Tribunal concluded that the impugned decision was made following the correct procedure and was based on well-founded evidence. Accordingly, the Application was dismissed. Denial of claim based on evidentiary grounds: The Tribunal observed that in assessing the Applicant’s claim for compensation, the principle issue for the ABCC was whether the injury resulted as a natural incident of performing duties on behalf of the United Nations. This was a question of fact to be established by evidence. The Tribunal held that the functions of ABCC include making recommendations on claims for...

The Tribunal found that the facts on which the sanction was based had not been established and the facts that were established did not legally amount to misconduct. Consequently, the Tribunal concluded that the disciplinary measure imposed on the Applicant was unlawful ab initio and therefore a violation of his rights. Witness statements: The Tribunal concluded that the witness statements without averments of truthfulness could not constitute clear and convincing evidence that the Applicant solicited and obtained money from the five complainants in return for their recruitment as casual daily...

Receivability - The arguments that this Application is not receivable were premised on the provisions of section 5 of ST/AI/1998/9 which is the legislation governing the policies and procedures for the classification and reclassification of posts. In the instant case, there was no attempt or effort made to reclassify the Applicant’s post. The Respondent’s preliminary objection that this Application is not receivable is therefore irrelevant and accordingly dismissed. Admissibility of evidence – In considering the Respondent’s prayer with regard to the admissibility of Annex 13, the Tribunal...

Material facts: The Tribunal noted that the decision letter, the minutes of the UNCB meetings and the evidence of the Secretary of the UNCB showed that the UNCB acted on the understanding that in spite of its date, the Applicant’s 7 December 2010 inventory list had been prepared after the event and that there was no evidence of the Applicant’s personal possessions that predated it. The Tribunal found that such evidence existed and was available to the UNCB. Consequently, the Tribunal concluded that the UNCB did not take into account all material facts relating to the Applicant’s claim for...

The decision not to renew a fixed-term appointment is often closely linked to the Organization’s broader discretion on how to organize its services. In that respect, the Tribunal notes that in times of scare resources, managers bear particular responsibilities for making sound management decisions, which implies making an assessment of services needed at a given time in a given department, and to avoid to unnecessary expenditure of public money with which they are effectively entrusted. Any post facto assessment of these matters is only relevant to the extent that it is able to demonstrate...

Discretion of investigators: Duly authorised investigators have a discretion to determine the information that they deem relevant to gather and probe further. However, such discretion is not unfettered. Investigations must be conducted in a fair, balanced and impartial manner.

Admissibility and value of evidence: Circumstantial evidence, as well as hearsay, are admissible in the Organization’s internal justice system. However, their probative value is more limited than that of direct evidence. Mere statements of witnesses holding that the Applicant had engaged in other instances in behavior...

UNDT accepted the Applicant’s witnesses’ as evidence as relevant and admissible. The witnesses generally addressed theatmosphere in which the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) staff in Abyei functioned, including the reaction of the principal chiefs of the Dinka tribe to policy changes which they did not like. This raised issues to be considered in assessing the complaints of Complainants 1 and 2. Complainants 1 and 2 did not sign or indicate the veracity of their statements. This failure to authenticate the statements created doubt as to the veracity of the statements...

The Applicant’s attempt to hug V01 did not on its own qualify as an unwelcome sexual advance or request for sexual favour or verbal or physical conduct or gesture of a sexual nature or any other behaviour of a sexual nature. The Applicant’s asking for V01’s room number on multiple occasions did not constitute sexual harassment. The facts did not establish sexual harassment as defined in ST/SGB/2008/5 and as interpreted in various jurisprudence. The Respondent’s investigations were skewed toward finding a case for sexual harassment regardless of the inadequacy of evidence to substantiate the...

The Tribunal ruled that Annex 18 to the application was inadmissible. According to the Applicant, the annexure comprised of a publicly released commentary and analysis of the case. The Tribunal found that such commentary has no value, evidential or otherwise, being that whoever compiled it was not subject to the Tribunal’s jurisdiction. That being the case, the veracity of the comments was not and could not be tested. The commentary neither amounted to evidence nor to parties’ submissions. Based on the uncontroverted evidence that the Applicant refused to participate in a follow-up interview...