HADA

WADA removes Greece from its compliance Watch List

The World Anti-Doping Organisation announced that HADA successfully completed the compliance procedure and it has now  been removed from WADA's "watch list". This is an important achievement for HADA which was made possible after close collaboration with WADA during the past few months.

Due to systematic work  which was completed in a very short time, HADA achieved to settle any issues which were still pending much sooner than the middle of January 2022 which was the deadline set by WADA.

It should be noted that apart from Greece, only Holland and Latvia were removed from the watch list, whereas countries with long sporting culture like Spain, Portugal, Belgium and  Romania have not conformed with WADA's Code and stil remain in the watch list.

HADA fully complied with all the requirements set by WADA to its signatories having valuable support and help by the deputy minister of Sports and Culture, Lefteris Avgenakis, who took action on behalf of the Greek government so that the Code would be voted by the Greek parliament and all the requirements set by WADA would be met.

In a very short time HADA managed to solve all the issues that were remaining unsettled due to inaction of the previous years. More specifically:

• A new Governor and a new executive director were appointed
  
• The new structure of the administration was organised
  
• The responsibilities of the executive team and the independence from the administrative council were settled
  
• The Anti-Doping department and the ADAMS system were reformed under the international standards and all the payments to the sample collectors were completed
  
• WADA approved the Doping control program based on the Risk Assessment Distribution Plan from which the Received Testing Pool is formed. A program for the biological passport of athletes (ABP) was made and for the first time  in the history of Anti-Doping in Greece, an intelligence and investigation office was created, whose responsibility is the collection and assessment of information.
  
• HADA fully reformed the results management protocol which is now compliant with the International Code in all levels ( whereabouts violation, information procedure for the individuals and authorities involved)
  
• Regarding TUE, the procedure was clarified and the relevant committee signed confidentiality documents.
  
• Regarding education,  HADA has held all the necessary seminars for athletes and coaches and has prepared a program of further education seminars for athletes, trainers, suspended athletes, sample collectors and also a campaign to inform the public ( journalists, parents and students)
  
• HADA created  a relevant department which controls and secures all the information from and to the Agency using cryptographic message services.
  

The official site of the Organisation has been updated (www.eokan.gr) and  HADA /EOKAN has now complete autonomy and financial independence  according to WADA's requirements.

Overall, there were 8 pending issues of general interest, 21 which were critical and 27 of high priority. HADA successfully resolved all the issues and this resulted in the 100% compliance with WADA's Code.

"WADA recognised our efforts during the past few months. This decision gives us the courage to continue our hard work in order to achieve our goal and really support our athletes and inform the public so that the younger generation will stay away from doping and its harmful consequences. I would like to thank the deputy minister ,Lefteris Avgenakis, who supported EOKAN's independence and took all the necessary action for the compliance of the Organisation with WADA's Code and also EOKAN's former  Governor, Panagiotis Skandalakis, who contributed to the constitution of the Organisation and set the basis for EOKAN's mission", stated Dr Grigoris Leon, HADA's Governor