Preface
This is the second Annual Report from Doping Authority Netherlands. Until 2018, the work of the National Anti-Doping Organisation in our country was done by the Netherlands Anti-Doping Authority (the ADAN foundation). However, since 2019, that work has been taken over by the independent administrative body (zbo) Doping Authority Netherlands.
The corona pandemic had a major impact on the work of Doping Authority Netherlands in 2020. As soon as the first lockdown was announced in March, it became very difficult for the organisation to execute its duties. Doping controls and educational activities came to a virtual standstill and they could only be resumed gradually after all sorts of changes had been introduced. However, the almost complete stoppage of sports competitions and the necessary corona measures announced by the government involved major restrictions until the end of the year. In addition, several employees were affected (personally or in their immediate circles) by the pandemic, and that further complicated operations. It was therefore possible to achieve the goals set for 2020 in part only.
In Chapter 1, we report on how we have implemented our mission of 'providing information about doping' (Wuab, Article 5(d)). Chapters 2, 4, and 8 describe various aspects of 'the implementation of the doping control process' (Wuab, Article 5(b)). Chapter 3 contains information about 'the collection and investigation of information about possible violations of doping regulations' (Wuab, Article 5(c)). The other chapters describe the implementation of a range of support tasks and processes needed to fulfil the statutory duties in a correct way.
As an independent administrative body, Doping Authority Netherlands is also covered by the Government Information (Public Access) Act (Wet openbaarheid bestuur (Wob)) but no public information request was received in 2020.
Doping Authority Netherlands is also governed by the General Administrative Law Act (Algemene wet bestuursrecht, Awb) and the CEO of Doping Authority Netherlands made one decision about an objection in 2020. This decision was published (after anonymisation) on the corporate website of Doping Authority Netherlands.
Doping Authority Netherlands has its own Complaints Procedure in addition to the arrangements under the General Administrative Law Act (Awb). It was not used in 2020.