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The Institute of National Anti-Doping Organisations (iNADO) calls for more transparency within the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The organisation was recently threatened to be partially defunded by the United States Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) if serious reforms to its structure were not immediately taken.
iNADO suggested that WADA should have more independent members as well as greater participation of athletes in the decision-making process.
iNADO issued a statement following the publication last week’s ONDCP report.
According to iNADO there may be some potential for conflict of interest within its governance structure.
In 2019, the U.S. government’s annual contribution to WADA was $2,513,65. The U.S. contributes more than any other country to WADA. This may be justified by the fact that Team USA is typically the largest and the U.S.’s ability to pay is also the highest. For example, Kenya, with 50 athletes currently provisionally or fully suspended paid just $2,727 to WADA. Ethiopia $2,756 and Morocco $3,779.
Canada with approximately 10% of the population of the U.S. paid $1,256,826 dollars. In contrast, China only paid $430,539, Russia $948,747, Japan’s allotment was $1,502,800, and Brazil just $367,043.
Russia, with five times the population of Canada and a similar population to Japan, should be paying much more.
WADA and former WADA President Dick Pound bristled at the ONDCP report that apparently was filled with inaccuracies.
WADA issued a detailed response to the threat and the factual basis apparently relied upon by ONDCP to “justify” the threat.
Pound told Athletics Illustrated, “That response is a devastating exposure of a deeply-flawed and palpably biased position, asserted by ONDCP, that cries out for exposure and denunciation. To its credit, WADA has done so and has requested ONDCP to advise the Congress accordingly. The public release of its response will, one way or the other, find its way to the Congress.”
Expect the war of words to continue as Jorge Leyva, CEO of iNADO told Inside the Games, “Since 2016, a group of leading NADOs and iNADO have called for WADA to embrace good governance practices detailed in the Copenhagen Reform Proposals.”
