Today, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) held an Executive Committee (ExCo) meeting in Tokyo, Japan, which was graciously hosted by the country’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The 12-member ExCo is WADA's ultimate policy-making body and is composed equally of representatives from the Sports Movement and Governments.
The ExCo received an update from the Chair of the independent Compliance Review Committee (CRC) concerning compliance of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) with the Code.
The ExCo was informed that good progress was being made by WADA’s Intelligence and Investigations Department (I&I) in analyzing the data retrieved from the Moscow Laboratory in January 2019. To date, 47 cases have already been identified and evidentiary packages sent to the relevant International Federations (IFs) as per the process outlined by WADA in July, and several disciplinary proceedings have been commenced by the IFs based on that evidence.
The ExCo was also informed that further investigation, by WADA I&I and independent experts in digital forensics, of the inconsistencies in the Moscow Laboratory data outlined in WADA’s press release dated 2 July 2019 had led WADA to open a formal compliance procedure against RUSADA on 17 September 2019. Ensuring the authenticity of the Moscow Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) and underlying raw data was one of the critical conditions imposed by the ExCo for RUSADA to maintain its compliance with the Code when the ExCo decided to reinstate RUSADA as Code-compliant in September 2018.
The ExCo was advised that WADA had decided to pursue the compliance procedure against RUSADA on a fast-track basis, in accordance with Article 9.5 of the International Standard for Code Compliance by Signatories (ISCCS). RUSADA and the Russian Ministry of Sport have been provided with copies of the reports of WADA I&I and the independent forensic experts that detail the inconsistencies in question and have been given three weeks to provide their comments, together with answers to a list of specific questions.
Once that response has been received and analyzed, WADA I&I and the independent forensic experts will report back to the CRC, so that the CRC is in a position to decide whether to bring a formal recommendation to the ExCo. No fixed timeline can be set for this, as due process must be respected, but the ExCo was assured that WADA is pursuing the matter robustly and as quickly as practicable.
In the meantime, the process of using the remaining data from the Moscow Laboratory and other forms of evidence to bring more cheats to justice continues. The aforementioned 47 cases are unaffected and contained no inconsistencies in the data.