Advisory Board
Doping Authority Netherlands has an Advisory Board that consisted of five persons in 2019 (see Annex 2 for the members of the Board). The Board met on four occasions in 2011. In addition to discussing and commenting on the work of Doping Authority Netherlands on the basis of progress reports and other documents, the Board's task is to make recommendations to the CEO of Doping Authority Netherlands. The Board issued six advisory reports in 2019. These were sent for information purposes to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport accompanied by an assessment from the CEO.
Office staff
During the year under review, Doping Authority Netherlands had four departments (Education, Enforcement & Investigation, Legal Affairs and Support). Together with the CEO, the four heads of department constitute the Office Board (Bestuurstafel).
At year-end 2019, the office organisation comprised 21 people and 19.5 FTEs. For an overview, the reader is referred to Annex 3.
Doping Control Officials (DCOs)
In addition to the permanent staff, there were 16 part-time Doping Control Officials at the end of 2019 (nine men and seven women, see Annex 3), who were appointed under 'minimum hours' contracts. These contracts account for 1.6 FTE.
Absenteeism
The absenteeism percentage was much higher in 2019 than in previous years: staff were absent on 7.6% of working days. This high percentage was mainly caused by two separate accidents that were not work-related. If these two incidents are left out of consideration, the absenteeism rate was 1.6%. This is a full percentage point lower than the percentage in 2018 and 2017.
Company Emergency Services (BHV)
Doping Authority Netherlands has three in-house emergency response workers to maximise the probability of enough support being available when it is needed. There were no significant incidents in 2019. An evacuation drill was conducted in collaboration with the other tenants in the office building.
Therapeutic Use Exemption Committee (TUE committee)
One of the provisions in the doping regulations relates to the procedure for the use of prohibited medication. Doping Authority Netherlands has established, for the Dutch sports associations, a committee known as the Therapeutic Use Exemption Committee (TUE committee), which consists of ten independent doctors.
Compliance with Doping Sanctions Committee and Appeals Committee for Compliance with Doping Sanctions
The World Anti-Doping Code requires Doping Authority Netherlands to monitor the implementation of sanctions imposed for doping. If there is any failure to comply with a sanction correctly, the same sanction begins again after the end of the original sanction. The Compliance with Doping Sanctions Committee is responsible for determining whether there has been correct compliance with a sanction and whether there are any reasons to reduce a subsequent sanction. A Compliance with Doping Sanctions Appeals Committee was established in 2017 for appeals against decisions made by the Compliance with Doping Sanctions Committee.
A case was submitted to the CND for the first time in 2019. The committee found that the athlete in question had violated the sanction and it imposed an additional sanction of one year of ineligibility. The athlete appealed to the Appeals Committee, who took the view that, although the athlete had violated the sanction, he could not be blamed because his sports association had - wrongly - informed him that he was entitled to compete again with effect from a given date. The additional sanction was therefore reversed.
Consultations with the Ministry
As an independent administrative body, Doping Authority Netherlands participates in various specialist consultations. For a relatively small organisation such as Doping Authority Netherlands, it is impossible to attend all meetings but the contacts that are established are useful in all organisational matters. Consultations relate to business operations, human resources, information security, general security, privacy and integrity.
Quality assurance
Doping Authority Netherlands is a government organisation covered by the National Code of Conduct for Integrity. Preventing fraudulent conduct is an ongoing focus of attention. No infringements of the Code of Conduct were observed in 2019.
Doping Authority Netherlands also has a Complaints Procedure in addition to the regular procedures that those concerned can initiate under the General Administrative Law Act (Awb). This procedure can be found on the corporate website. It was not used in 2019.
Informal complaints, mistakes, areas for improvement and data leaks are a standard item on the agenda during the fortnightly meetings of the Office Board, and the discussion is noted in the minutes of these meetings.
Archives Act
In order to meet all the requirements of the Archives Act, a project was initiated in 2019 for the adoption and publication of Management Arrangements.