Preface

You are viewing the sixth Annual Report from the Anti-Doping Authority of the Netherlands. This is the first Annual Report to be published exclusively in digital form. We hope this new, interactive approach will help you to find the information you require quickly.

2011 was, first and foremost, the year in which government cuts started to bite. We had to take leave of two colleagues, reducing our workforce from 13.6 to 11.8 FTE. Needless to say, this cutback impacted the organisation's activities, which were streamlined and reduced in various areas.

As a result of the economies, there has been a clear shift in the Prevention Department to digital information transfer, leading to a reduction in the number of face-to-face contacts (i.e. information meetings). The telephone services of the Doping Infolijn came to an end altogether in late 2011.

Furthermore, in close consultation with the NOC*NSF, the scope of the control programme was cut back. On the basis of the available financial resources, the target was changed from 2000 to 1900 doping controls. In the end, 1,965 doping controls were carried out.

The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports granted two multi-year project subsidies and so the Doping Authority was able to make a good start in 2011 on a doctorate study of the efficacy of the global anti-doping policy, and on a knowledge management project that will make large amounts of doping-related information available to the public. Reports will be produced for both projects upon termination in 2014.

A trend in previous years continued more emphatically in 2011: the ever-increasing complexity and therefore the amount of time involved in doping proceedings. This applies to both the appraisal of the cases prior to transfer to the associations for disciplinary assessment, and to assistance during the disciplinary procedures themselves. In a number of cases, the large amounts of time invested ultimately produced information that was to the advantage of the athletes in question.

Despite the increasing conflict between the responsibilities of the organisation and the available resources, we believe that we made an important contribution once again in 2011 to the fight against doping in sport. We hope you will agree with us after reading this Annual Report.

The board