POSITIVE OUTLOOK!
Chairman of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) Alexander Williams says the State-run body has applied to Government for an increase in funding for 2023 as it seeks to expand its staff and testing capacity.
Williams said JADCO has returned to its normal operations following the reduction in the COVID-19 positivity rate worldwide, therefore, pushing the association to full throttle as it seeks to contract the services of more qualified persons to the entity in order to carry out its functions more effectively.
He said 31 persons are currently employed by JADCO and they are now looking to increase that number to 35.
In 2021, a total of 520 people were tested by the organisation, which includes 400 urine samples and 120 blood tests. For the current year, 530 people have been tested and this includes 430 urine samples and 130 blood tests.
“We are increasing the complement of persons engaged in the organisation. We are bringing on board a legal officer because we want to expand our cadre of employees,” said Williams.
“We suspect that with the rise in prices there will be an inflation component to the number of other things that we plan to do, and so we feel that this is what we are going to need to maintain the work that we have been doing going forward,” he said.
Williams stated that last year JADCO received $260 million in subvention from the Government, but with the increase in global prices, they have now applied for over $300 million in assistance for the upcoming year.
“We have gone back to our pre-COVID level of testing, and we have increased testing beyond the pre-COVID level and so, yes, testing is increasing,” he said.
Williams said JADCO is actively building out its awareness and education portfolio, using social and mainstream media, plus physical contact events.
“We have maintained excellent education programmes in accordance with the international standards…which includes all social media, radio and television. We have seminars, we have symposiums, and we engage each athlete on an individual level,” he noted.
Williams pointed out that JADCO will continue to be very vigilant in its testing policies as they are very serious about maintaining a very high level of testing that is required by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
“Our education programmes, I believe, are on an excellent level because it seeks to educate the athletes about their rights and responsibilities, prohibited list and the WADA rules,” he said.
“Our testing continues to be of an excellent standard, we have persons who are properly trained and all of that, and the way in which we go about our results management process is now at a routine level of excellence.
“We are continuing programmes with the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport and we have our mobile unit which is retrofitted, so we believe that we are really operating at a very high standard,” he ended.