JADCO to Have Control of Own Accounts

The corporate structure of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCo) has been reviewed and come April 2015, the entity will have its own accounting department and will write its own cheques.

Minister of Justice, Senator Mark Golding, made the disclosure in the Senate yesterday (Dec.19), as he responded to concerns raised during the debate on the Anti-Doping in Sport Bill.

The legislation, which was passed, is intended to ensure Jamaica’s compliance with the revised World Anti-doping Code that comes into effect on January 1, 2015.

Among other things, it establishes JADCo as an independent body charged with implementing and enforcing the revised code in Jamaica.

It also outlines the functions of the Commission; establishes the Board of Directors, an independent anti-doping disciplinary panel, and an anti-doping appeals tribunal.

Opposition Senator Alexander Williams, while supporting the legislation, expressed the hope that JADCO will have its own administration and expenditure as in the pass “JADCO could not draw its own cheques.”

“If you needed to pay for a test to get it back quickly from Miami or Canada, you had to contact the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, ask if the money is available, (and) they make a promise to the lab abroad for the particular test to be paid for,” he pointed out.

For her part, Senator Sophia Fraser Binns noted that a public education programme should be implemented by JADCo to inform athletes and other stakeholders about the new anti-doping code.

“This anti-doping campaign calls for the coming together of schools, churches, the private sector, especially those which ask sport personnel to do endorsements, and we know that endorsements represent a big chunk of the income of athletes. Track and field is not the only sport for which anti-doping is required as testing is required for all sports at the national and international levels,” she argued.

Senator Golding, in response noted that JADCo’s budget was increased by a 110 per cent in 2014 to conduct in and out of competition testing, and, with the agency to have control of its own accounts, this should increase.

As it relates to public education, he informed that JADCo prepares a monthly newsletter that is distributed to all athletes, and the agency also undertakes sensitisation sessions in schools.

He said that a symposium will be held in January to educate stakeholders about the new Act and the anti-doping rules.

The Anti-Doping in Sport Bill was passed in the House of Representatives on December 9, 2014.