Our mandate

The Internal Investigations Service is responsible for carrying out investigations of fraud, as defined in the Operational Circular n°10.

CERN defines fraud as “any intentional act or omission designed to deceive others and to achieve a gain for the perpetrator or a third party, resulting in the Organization suffering a loss of funds, property or reputation.”

Fraud includes, but is not limited to, deception, bribery, forgery, extortion, corruption, theft, embezzlement, misappropriation, false representation and concealment of material facts.

Fraud investigations are the objective, diligent and timely process of information-gathering and analysis to asses whether fraud has occurred.

A fraud investigation may not be launched in the absence of a fraud indicator.

A fraud indicator is any element indicating the reasonable possibility of fraud. It can be internal (e.g. result of control, anonymous or identified tip, etc.) or external (e.g. supplier complaint, indication from national authorities, etc.).

All persons who have a suspicion of fraud have a duty to report and shall contact either:

• their hierarchy
• the Head of the Human Resources Department or
• the Head of the Audit and Investigation Services group (for instance by contacting the Internal Investigations team)