A Year After Being Audited by the WADA Audit Team to the Performance of IADO

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Situations during the audit by WADA team. Source: IADO.

Jakarta, 29 April 2024

A year ago, on April 27th and 28th,  2023, the IADO office at the FX Tower of Senayan received 3 special guests from WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency). Their arrival was initially preceded by an official letter sent by the Director General of WADA Mr. Olivier Niggli to the Minister of Youth and Sports Mr. Zainudin Amali on December 13th ,  2023, essentially informing him that the WADA Audit Team would come to Jakarta on April 26th and 27th,  2023. Since these dates were on the national holidays of Eid Al-Fitr, IADO kindly proposed to WADA that it should be postponed to May 2023, but this could not be granted, because the WADA Audit Team already had a busy schedule. However, WADA postponed it a day so that it became April 27th  and 28th,  2023. They were very experienced and competent auditors who specifically came to Jakarta to audit IADO’s performance. For IADO officials, its obligation to be audited by the WADA Team was something common and unavoidable. However, the timing was not ideal, because it coincided with the last days of the 2023 Eid Al-Fitr holiday, so for those returning home for such a special holiday to their respective regional villages were forced to be asked to immediately return to Jakarta prior to April 27th,  2023 and there in facts was no one of personnel of IADO allowed to extend their holiday at that time, because of the importance of the WADA audit. Fortunately, the notification of WADA’s audit plan was known several months in advance, consequently when the WADA Team came and evaluated IADO’s performance at the IADO office, no one was absent.

The atmosphere of the inspection by the WADA Audit Team did not show actually any tense, because the WADA Audit Team was very friendly and cooperative. Due to their friendly attitude, the WADA Audit Team tried to question the negative rumors they had heard about Jakarta, which was described as full of traffic jams. A number of IADO personnel immediately responded to that comment by saying that Jakarta was not congested as usual, because it was in the season of Eid Al-Fitr holiday. However, for all IADO staff, the two days during which the audit took place were inevitable quite tense and stressful, because the future fate and performance of IADO as well as whether Indonesia would be suspended or not, like it occurred at the end of 2016 and the end of 2021, would be determined on these two days. It would also be decided whether the performance would ultimately be considered good enough or good or vice versa bad and at risk of sanctions from WADA again being determined by the audit. So even though the WADA Team said in their introduction, that IADO does not need to worry, because audit activities are so common and are implemented in a number of countries whose purposes are to improve performance on the basis that Indonesia has been subject to sanctions twice (the end of 2016 to the early of 2017 and the end of 2021 to the early of 2022), and these should not  occur  again if Indonesia, especially LADI or later IADO, can always comply with the World Anti-Doping Code.

During the audit activities, IADO’s anxiety was finally proven, because in the early of 2024 IADO was almost suspended again by WADA, and that was very serious news, even though IADO never published its worries, accordingly if it was actually sanctioned again, it would be very fatal for image of IADO and Indonesia in general. Through its official letter of February 12th,  2024, WADA officially stated that IADO is threatened to be suspended if it did not fully comply with the World Anti-Doping Code. If these sanction was really imposed based on the decision of the WADA Executive Committee meeting which convened on March 11th,  2024 in Lausanne, then the story of the victory of Jonatan Christie (men’s singles champion) and Fajar Alfian / Muhammad Rian Ardianto (men’s doubles champion) at the All England on March 17th, 2024 would be similar with  the fate of  the Indonesian Team winning the Thomas Cup in October 17th,  2021 in Denmark, namely getting the champion without raising the Red and White Flag. It could possibly include the Indonesian National Team’s frenetic achievements at the Asian Cup in Qatar 2024, in which it could not be decorated by the Red and White Flag normally prior to the match (as it was the similar case during the AFF Cup at the end of 2021 / early 2022 in Singapore). This would also include the 2024 Paris Olympics. The Indonesian contingent would be prohibited to bring the Red and White Flag during the contingent defile of the Opening Ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games and on the various games. Fortunately, at the WADA Executive Committee meeting on March 11th,  2024, WADA stated that IADO was deemed to have complied with the World Anti-Doping Code. The certainty of Indonesia’s escape from the threat of sanctions was revealed when the Indonesian Delegation attended the 2024 WADA Annual Symposium in Lausanne on March 12th,  2024, and WADA initially informally conveyed the good news for Indonesia and then was followed it up with an official letter from WADA. I felt really relieved at that time and the happy news was immediately conveyed to the Minister of Youth and Sports Mr. Dito Ariotedjo, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mrs. Retno L. Marsudi and Minister of Law and Human Rights Mr. Yasonna H. Laoly, because these three ministries were the ones who fully provided support to IADO to convince WADA, that the government guarantees IADO’s compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code.

With reference to the audit atmosphere on April 27th  and 28th,  2023. IADO had been really identified in very great detail on the basis of its good and bad appearance of its performance during the 2022 performance and previous years. The good sides of IADO’s performance included:

  1. IADO’s existence has been accommodated based on the Law of No. 11 of 2022 (because the previous law did not place the anti-doping agency as an independent institution and did not mention its budget source / the related, new law was passed in the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia on February 16th, 2022).
  2. IADO already has the Articles of Association and the Bylaws (previously there was no Articles of Association, because the Articles of Association was only ratified in June 2022 and then the Bylaws in July 2022, but then both documents had to ask for approval from WADA).
  3. IADO is legally registered at the Notary’s Office (it was never registered previously / the first registration was submitted to the Notary’s Office in February 2022) and is licensed at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (it was previously not registered and not licensed at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights / the first registration was approved at the Office Notary and also the Ministry of Law and Human Rights in February 2022).
  4. IADO already has its own special website IADO.ID which is actively updated regularly and is available in two languages ​​(Indonesian and English / this comprehensive website has been actively available since June 2022;
  5. IADO already has 22 SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures / it commenced on December 2022, then the number of SOPs has continued to grow).
  6. IADO already has internal agreement such as avoiding conflicts of interest (because it refers Article 20.5.1 of the World Anti-Doping Code, which essentially states that NADO / National Anti-Doping Organization Management personnel such as IADO may not hold concurrent positions directly or indirectly at KONI (National Sports Committee of Indonesia), KOI (National Olympic Committee), NPC (National Paralympic Committee), National Federations and / or Ministry that is responsible to sports). In addition,  DCO (Doping Control Officer) and BCO (Blood Collection Officer) personnel are bound by an integrity pact with various consequences if violated, and the TUE and RM Committees as independent units of IADO, in which they are also bound by an integrity pact with various consequences;
  7. For the first time in the history of LADI, IADO has published the 2022 Annual Report in English version only, which was sent directly to WADA even though the preparation of the Annual Report is not required by WADA, but at least it allowed IADO to submit a comprehensive report on its annual activities (for information in February 2024 IADO has also published an Annual Report 2023 and also sent directly to WADA);
  8. IADO has received a significant budget from the Ministry of Youth and Sports for 2022 and 2023.
  9. IADO has occupied a separate own office, funded by the Ministry of Youth and Sports / since September 2022 at the FX Tower of Senayan;
  10. IADO has been supported by the presence of full-time (not part-time) personnel since June 2022.
  11. IADO has regularly communicated with WADA and SEARADO both in updating activities and attending virtual and physical meetings.
  12. IADO has tried its best efforts to demonstrate its optimal performance in accordance with WADA rules and various related WADA International Standards (this was totally different compared to the LADI era which was deemed less compliant with WADA rules and various related WADA International Standards).

However, the following negative notes on IADO’s performance, which were much more numerous compared to the positive sides as mentioned above.

  1. Negative note to the Secretariat General were as follows:
    • the definition of doping in the Law of No. 11 of 2022 was considered to be contradictory  to the World Anti-Doping Code;
    • WADA requested an immediate acceleration of MoUs or other efforts with Committees and National Federations due to the very limited number of MoUs included  IADO and National Federations, showing  to  13 MoUs only, while on the other hand the total number of National Federations under the auspices of KONI (National Sports Committee of Indonesia) and KOI (National Olympic Committee of Indonesia) consisted of 67 organizations;
    • the budget that IADO received in 2022 was IDR 18,547,230,000 from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, while in 2023 it was slightly reduced, consequently WADA questioned the decrease in the amount of budget assistance which actually occurred at a time when there was still a lot of mandatory work that IADO had to complete them.
  2. Even though IADO has carried out educational activities in 15 provinces out of a total of 34 provinces (later there  should be 38 provinces to be  visited) in addition to National Federations in general, the Directorate of Education has several negative records that need to improve its performance:
    • it was deemed not to have an Education Plan and Education Pool that comply with the International Standard for Education;
    • it has never carried out a Current Condition Assessment;
    • it has never translated Prohibited Substances into Indonesian on the IADO website;
    • it has never explained the consequences/impact of doping on the IADO website;
    • it has never conducted education about the importance of SpeakUp;
    • it has never created a program for paralympic athletes;
    • it has never made an Annual Evaluation Report; and
    • it has never established educational collaboration with international or national federations.
  3. Even though IADO has tested / collected 286 samples for Out of Competition Testing (OOCT) activities and 295 samples for In Competition Testing (ICT) activities or it totally counted to 581 samples, which was 8 times more than in 2021 (before the sanction was imposed WADA at the end of 2021), the Testing Directorate has however several notes that need to improve its performance:
    • it has never a complete version of the Risk Assessment, and even if there is one, it has never been shown to the existing National Federations;
    • it has not yet required athletes who are included in the RTP (Registered Testing Pool) to send Whereabouts, and the consequences should be explained for athletes who do not send Whereabouts;
    • it should  ensure passport custodianship of athletes who are in the IADO RTP and Testing Pool (TP) in the Anti-Doping Administration & Management System (ADAMS);
    • there were in facts certain months where testing were not  carried out on athletes, especially from January to April because of unavailability budget for IADO;
    • there was a number of local events in which sample collections were not conducted  referring to ICT mechanisms;
    • the content of the testing policy and procedure should not be displayed on the IADO website;
    • IADO should start implementing the targeted athletes to collect samples (on ICT);
    • the implementation of OOCT of IADO it  was still easy to be predicted, consequently it should be necessary to look for a suitable method that is difficult to be predicted (it should  be silent and  sudden action, and in addition the DCO is prohibited use IADO attributes, either uniform nor bag);
    • there was urgency to  review of recommendations derived from the Athlete Passport Management Unit (APMU);
    • there were certain cases in which delays had shown significantly  in sending samples to the designated WADA-accredited laboratories abroad and it was recommended to send samples within a short time, because such delivery  would impact the routine of collecting and sending samples more frequently;
    • it was necessary to revise the existing DCO Manual, which was in accordance with the International Standard for Testing and Investigation;
    • it was strongly recommended to improve the reaccreditation process of  the DCO or  Blood Collection Officer (BCO) ; and
    • a better management of DCOs and BCOs was needed from any recruitment to any ongoing evaluation in accordance with the International Standard for Testing and Investigation.
  4. Even though the Intelligence and Investigation Directorate is relatively new (formed in early 2022), its performance has been quite good in supporting the performance of other Directorates. However, there were several following performances  which need to be improved, especially those related to data privacy, which were as follows:
    • it was still unclear who was responsible for data privacy;
    • the existing procedures were not in accordance with the existing International Standard for the Protection of Privacy and Personal Information;
    • there was not yet  effective management of confidential data from archiving to  conducting data destruction; and
    • risk assessment has not been carried out on potency of any personal data leakage.
  5. Although the TUE (Therapeutic Use Exemption) Committee has handled a number of TUE applications in accordance with existing provisions and has not resulted in applicant complaints, there were in facts several correction notes:
    • medical storage and destruction procedures need to be improved, especially for data privacy;
    • the procedure for determining who is entitled to apply for a retroactive TUE should  be clarified; and
    • the potency and definition of conflict of interest also needed to be clarified.
  6. Even though the RM (Results Management) Committee has completed its duties well throughout 2022, there was a number of negative notes mentioned by WADA:
    • there should be a distinction assigned between for Hearing and Appeal Sessions. For an information, the RM Committee is assigned for Hearings only, while for Appeals it should be better to choose from other panelists, possibly from the Ministry of Youth and Sports or from other institutions to handle it;
    • there has never been any allocation of funds for legal proceedings to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), in anticipation of athletes submitting their legal issues to CAS;
    • on the IADO website, any data should be compulsory  uploaded regarding Anti-Doping Rules Violation (ADRV), when any sanctions would begin and would end;
    • there should be a clarity on the consistency of the person responsible for maintaining the time frame of a case;
    • the RM decision should be uploaded to ADAMS and it should be written in English (because the existing one was available in Indonesian only); and
    • there were still old cases that had not been procceded (especially the unresolved legal processes from cases in 2015 and 2020, consequently IADO is compulsory to handle it without arguing that those cases occurred  out of the era of its existing management).

With reference to the findings discovered by the WADA Audit Team, IADO has taken a number of follow-up steps, including:

  1. IADO since April 29th,  2023 has sent several following documents to the WADA Audit Team, namely:
    • SOP of Intelligence and Investigation;
    • template of an IADO Employment Agreement;
    • templates of TUE and RM Integrity Pacts;
    • MoU between IADO and  NDCC Mahidol Laboratory of Bangkok;
    • agreement of APMU;
    • organizational structure of IADO;
    • confidentiality of Hearings;
    • non conflict of interest of Hearing;
    • minutes of meeting (MoM) of Board of Advisers (Council of Advisors);
    • attendance list;
    • accreditation evaluation of DCO;
    • attachment to agreement with DCO;
    • improvements to the public disclosure page on the IADO website by adding the time when sanctions should commence start and should end; and
    • improvement of the IADO website page by adding general statistics as information material for the public.
  2. IADO has identified all findings, which were compulsory to be followed up immediately, because the completion time for some should be completed at least prior to 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and 1 year only.
  3. The Education Directorate has also made improvements to its annual Education Plan and Evaluation in accordance with the recommendations from the WADA audit.
  4. IADO, through the Testing Directorate, has also made improvements as it was  recommended and it should strive to complete some of them before a Corrective Action Report (CAR) would be issued.
  5. However, without having to wait for a written report sent by the WADA Audit Team, IADO immediately sent a number of documents which were deemed to have been completed.
  6. Specifically, the issue of the number of MoUs with national federations was a fairly heavy burden, because up to the time of the audit there were only 10 national federations having MoUs with IADO in addition to 3 other organizations including KONI (National Sports Committee of Indonesia), KOI (National Olympic Committee of Indonesia) and NPC (National Paralympic Committee of Indonesia). WADA’s non-negotiable request was that the total of all National Federations that are members of KONI (National Sports Committee of Indonesia) and KOI (National Olympic Committee of Indonesia), because even though IADO initially requested 14 National Federations (which are included in the Grand National Sports Design), WADA did not agree. Then the 28 main sports organizations that are sports in the Olympics are also not approved, and likewise only sports that are competed in the SEA Games or Asian Games, and those were also not approved by WADA. It was still mandatory for IADO to have MoUs with all of them even though most of them are not sports that are competed in the Olympics. Finally, until December 15 2023, IADO succeeded in establishing MoUs with 65 national federations in addition to   3 organizations with KONI (National Sports Committee of Indonesia), KOI (National Olympic Committee of Indonesia) and NPC (National Paralympic Committee of Indonesia).
  7. Another challenge occurred that even though IADO was compulsory to resolve all negative notes / findings of the WADA Audit Team within a very limited time, on the other side routine activities should not be abandoned, because the commitment to improve performance quality during 2023 was also considered for WADA’s assessment.
  8. As a result of that assessment process, almost every week there used always to be  bit of panic from all IADO levels, namely, for example, what percentage has been completed. Initially it was only 21% at the beginning of May 2023 due to a number of IADO documents being sent to WADA, then in June 2023 the progress slowed down somewhat, because it was only around 30%, and after September 2023 it was rather fast and by mid-January 2024 it reached 95%. The period to achieve the additional 5% was the most difficult one, but in the end of the 5% shortfall portion was fulfilled  after the direct involvement of full support, shown by the Minister of Youth and Sports, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Law and Human Rights, which in fact from these three ministries had started to commence  their support  since  October 2023. If the 5% did not fulfill, then the risk that would  be imposed on March 11th,  2024 at the WADA Executive Committee meeting impacting to be a suspension against IADO, but fortunately that did not happen.
  9. In addition to the assessment process, another challenge that was also more  serious is to fulfil the obligation to force all national federations through MoUs. Tha was not an easy matter, because it was common that the legal department of each National Federations was very observant and did not easily  accept the proposed MoU from IADO. Furthermore, other problem related to meet schedule of the Chairmen of National Federations, in which some of them were  high-ranking state officials, such as Chairman of the MPR / People’s Consultative Assembly  (for the Indonesian Motorcycle Association), Chairman of the DPD / Regional Representative Council (for Indonesian Muaythai), the Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs (for the All-Indonesian Athletics Association), Minister of Public Works and Housing (for the All-Indonesian Rowing Association), Minister of Minister of Land Affairs and Spatial Planning / Head of the National Land Agency / now the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (for the Indonesian Karate Sports Federation), Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (for Obstacle Sports) and dozens of other national figures. Fortunately, that target could fulfill on time, except that there were 2 national federations that were not bound by the MoU after IADO got a written response from the NOC of Indonesia.
  10. There was indeed anxiety among IADO at the end of 2023 if the assessment did not reach 100%, and such anxiety was normal because all IADO personnel and along with all DCOs and BCOs have worked very hard, but it would be in vain if sanction was imposed, because the entire public would blame IADO. However, on the other hand, IADO highly appreciated to WADA, because of that audit, IADO could introspect themselves  on what are necessary to be completely addressed. If not, it would be impossible that at any time sanction will be imposed again on Indonesia.
  11. IADO is currently committed to complete and accelerate the resolution of all WADA Audit Team findings because errors / inaccuracies in fulfilling these obligations would have an adverse impact on the possibility of re-imposed sanction from WADA on Indonesia, especially IADO.

Jakarta, 29 April 2024

Chairman of IADO,
Gatot S. Dewa Broto

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