108Furthermore, the appointing authority must be held to have failed to comply with its obligation, arising from the duty of assistance which it owes (judgments of 24 April 2017, HF v Parliament, T‑570/16, EU:T:2017:283, paragraph 47, and of 13 July 2018, Curto v Parliament, T‑275/17, EU:T:2018:479, paragraph 98), to inform the complainants, in due time, of the action to be taken in respect of their request for assistance. Although the head of unit was informed of the opening of the administrative inquiry on 19 March 2014, the applicants were not informed until almost a month later. Similarly, the applicants do not seem to have been officially informed either of the date on which the disciplinary proceedings were opened against the head of unit, or of the nature and seriousness of the penalty imposed on him, when that information ought to have been provided to them, given that it was part and parcel of the handling of the request for assistance.