UNDT/2014/066, Dia
The Tribunal held that the Applicant’s claim regarding separation from service was not receivable ratione materiae. With respect to his non-selection, the Tribunal held that the Applicant had satisfactorily established that there was a flaw in the recruitment process and that this flaw had breached his right to due process. He was awarded 3 months compensation. Bias: The Tribunal concluded that by not shortlisting the Applicant initially due to an uninvestigated incident from 2009 it was obvious that the decision makers had already formed an adverse view of the Applicant. Consequently, doubt was raised as to the impartiality of the decision makers when the same persons who had disqualified him initially ended up, after a successful request for management evaluation, interviewing and evaluating his performance for the vacancy. The Tribunal held that objectively a reasonable observer would be bound to draw the irresistible inference that the possibility of bias existed.
The Applicant challenged the decisions by UNICEF to: separate him from service following the abolition of his post and not to select him for a finance assistant post.