¹ú²úAV

The practice of placing reliance upon recordings in initial fact finding exercises and interview notes of appointed investigators in an effort to establish gross misconduct warranting summary dismissal before the Tribunal is grossly inadequate and cannot establish the facts in issue. An investigator must be committed to ascertaining the facts of the case through relevant inquiry involving the questioning of witnesses, forensic evidence where necessary and identification and collection of relevant documentary evidence. The investigator’s findings should be based on substantiated facts and related analysis, not suppositions and assumptions. Factual accuracy is very important. Establishing criminal liability in investigations and judicial proceedings even in the context of a civil matter, such as in the present case, must necessarily require that a standard higher than the ordinary one of a balance of probabilities must be attained. In disciplinary cases where the charges against a staff-member are quasi-criminal in nature, the burden of proof rests with the Respondent to produce evidence that raises a reasonable inference, higher than the balance of probabilities standard that misconduct has occurred.