Corporate governance

Overview

ASADA’s corporate governance practices comply with statutory and other external requirements, and aim to achieve sound administration and financial management. They ensure the efficient, effective, and ethical use of our resources.

Key aspects of our corporate governance include:

agreeing on clearly established role accountabilities, including clear delegations of authority and responsibilities
planning and monitoring outputs, and
monitoring our use of resources, based on budgeting, financial accounting, audit, fraud control, risk management, and other reporting systems.

Our corporate area provides operational support and strategic advice to the executive and staff. Issues covered include areas such as operational planning, procurement, human resources (HR), governance, resource management and budgeting, records management and information and communications technology.

ASADA has an overall framework in place for good governance, which aims to make sure we can fulfil our responsibilities with due diligence and accountability.

The major elements of our governance framework are:

Management structure – our executive responsibilities, organisational structure, and senior committees are built around suitable terms of reference, appropriate controls, and the ability
to monitor activity and performance.
Management environment – we promote a culture that provides a coherent corporate planning framework, aligning our vision, strategies, planning processes and performance measures to meet clearly articulated goals. This is enhanced through leadership protocols, investing in people, a learning environment, and succession planning.
Consistency and compliance – our executive, management, and staff adhere to Australian Public Service (APS) values, ethics, and the APS Code of Conduct when undertaking their
duties and functions. This is also underpinned by the ongoing development and maintenance
of systems that provide guidance on policies, procedures, and behaviours.
Monitoring and reporting – we maintain a focus on efficient and effective business and financial performance. We achieve this through regular reporting against key performance indicators and the ongoing evaluation and review of outputs and outcomes.

The ASADA Members are responsible for decisions under the ASADA legislation. They have delegated certain powers to the ADRVC and management.

The Audit Committee, established by and reporting to the ASADA CEO, helps ensure accountability under the FMA Act.

Our management structure has three levels, with the following established accountabilities:

The Chair is accountable for ASADA’s management and strategic leadership.
Each Group Director is accountable for their group’s management and strategic leadership.
Each Business Unit Manager is accountable for their unit’s management and strategic leadership.

Corporate/operational planning

During 2007–08, ASADA reviewed its existing Strategic Plan, and developed a new Strategic Plan for 2008–11. This new plan sets a number of objectives designed to challenge and develop the organisation. It focuses on strategies to achieve a level playing field for athletes and allows for innovation in our operations.

We have also developed a ‘one-year priorities’ plan that is underpinned by business unit plans for 2008–09. This is to ensure that our operating priorities align across the agency with our new strategic direction.

At the beginning of the forthcoming 2008–09 financial year, following the finalisation of the Strategic Plan 2008–11, we will change our organisational structure to best implement the Strategic Plan.

ASADA members

ASADA members operate in accordance with powers and functions prescribed under the ASADA Act and the ASADA Regulations. The ASADA Act provides for the appointment of a Chair and up to six non-governing members (including a Deputy Chair) by the Minister for Sport. Section 77 of the ASADA Act provides that the ASADA Chair is not subject to direction by ASADA in relation to the ASADA Chair’s functions or powers under the FMA Act or the PS Act.

Key activities to which ASADA members contributed in 2007–08 included:

the review of the National Anti-Doping scheme to incorporate changes to the Code and general administrative amendments
operating the ADRVC, as a sub-committee of the members, and
decisions as required under the ASADA Act and the NAD scheme.

**Table 8:** ASADA member details at 30 June 2008
Position	Name	Date commenced	Date ending	Meetings eligible to attend	Meetings attended
Chair	Mr Richard Ings	14 March 2006	13 March 2009	11	11
Deputy Chair	Mr Geoff Levy	14 March 2006	13 March 2009	11	9
Member	Mr John Black	14 March 2006	13 March 2009	11	10
Member	Ms Jennifer Clark	14 March 2006	13 June 2011	11	11
Member	Ms Nicole Livingstone	14 March 2006	13 June 2011	11	6
Member	Professor Andrew McLachlan	14 March 2006	28 March 2010	11	10
Member	Dr Brian Sando	14 March 2006	28 March 2010	11	10

On 6 June 2008, the Minister for Sport reappointed Ms Jennifer Clark and Ms Nicole Livingstone for
three years.

Mr Richard Ings (Chair)

Richard Ings is ASADA’s first Chair and Chief Executive. Mr Ings assumed these roles when ASADA was officially launched on 14 March 2006. Before this, Mr Ings joined what was then the Australian Sports Drug Agency as its Chief Executive in September 2005, following five years’ working for the Association of Tennis Professionals, the governing body of the men’s professional tennis circuit.

Mr Geoffrey Levy AO (Deputy Chair)

Geoff Levy brings legal and business experience to the ASADA membership. Until 1 January 2008, Mr Levy was Executive Chairman of Investec Bank (Australia) Limited and Non-Executive Chairman of listed companies the Specialty Fashion Group Limited and Cromwell Group Limited as well as a Non-Executive Director of STW Group Limited. Mr Levy is a former partner of Australian national legal firm, Freehills.

Mr John Black (Member)

John Black, a former Senator for Queensland, chaired the Senate Inquiry into Drugs in Sport that
led to the establishment of ASADA and the design of drug testing regimes for Australian sport.

Ms Jennifer Clark (Member)

Jennifer Clark has had a long career in investment banking and as a non-executive director. She has been on various Australian Government boards since 1991, including the Australian Sports Commission and the Australian Sports Foundation.

Ms Nicole Livingstone (Member)

Nicole Livingstone has an extensive and highly successful background in swimming, including a silver medal and two bronze Olympic medals from three Olympics; six gold, two silver and a bronze from three Commonwealth Games; and four gold, two silver and a bronze from her six Pan Pacific Championships.

She is also a respected sports commentator and an outspoken critic of doping in sport. Ms Livingstone has also been heavily involved in the Australian Olympic Committee’s ‘Live clean, play clean’ anti-doping education program targeted at Australian junior elite athletes.

Professor Andrew McLachlan (Member)

Professor Andrew McLachlan is a pharmacist, teacher and researcher at the University of Sydney and Concord Hospital, with expertise in clinical pharmacology and drug testing. An educator of pharmacists and other health professionals, Professor McLachlan is also a consultant to industry
and government in the evaluation and safe use of medicines.

Dr Brian Sando OAM (Member)

Dr Brian Sando is a sports medicine practitioner, the Chair of the AOC Medical Commission and a member of the Commonwealth Games Federation Medical Commission. Dr Sando has worked as a Medical Officer to seven Australian Olympic teams (four as Senior Medical Director) and is a former president of Sports Medicine Australia. He is also a member of the WADA Health, Medical and Research Committee and the FINA Doping Control Review Board.

Anti-Doping Rule Violation Committee

Section 47(i)(b) of the ASADA Act allows ASADA to delegate functions and powers to a committee consisting of two or more ASADA members.

The ADRVC is an ASADA sub-committee that meets fortnightly and is made up of three ASADA Members: Dr Brian Sando (Chair), Mr Richard Ings and Professor Andrew McLachlan. The meetings are not restricted to these three ASADA Members, and all Members may attend.

The functions of the ADRVC include:

determining whether there is enough evidence for ASADA to issue a ‘show cause’ notice to athletes or support personnel who have potentially committed an anti-doping rule violation
determining whether there is sufficient evidence to make a finding of an anti-doping rule violation and place the relevant details on our RoF
making recommendations to sports of the appropriate sanctions/consequences of anti-doping rule violations
noting the opening and closing of examinations of laboratory reports of elevated testosterone/epitestosterone ratios (or other naturally occurring hormones), and
reviewing the progress of ASADA’s testing and investigation activities.

The ADRVC also decides whether any tribunal decision (such as decisions by the AAT or the Court of Arbitration for Sport) should be subject to appeal by ASADA, in cases where ASADA has a right of appeal. It also gives guidance to management on matters related to testing, investigations, result management, or enforcement actions.

**Table 9:** ASADA members’ attendance at Anti-Doping Rule Violation Committee 2007–08
Date of meeting	Dr Brian Sando (Chair)	Prof Andrew McLachlan Deputy Chair)	Richard Ings	Jennifer Clark	John Black	Geoff Levy	Nicole Livingstone
4 July 07
11 July 07
18 July 07
24 July 07
1 Aug 07
15 Aug 07
29 Aug 07 (extraordinary meeting)
12 Sep 07
27 Sep 07
10 Oct 07
23 Oct 07
9 Nov 07
21 Nov 07
5 Dec 07
18 Dec 07
23 Jan 08
6 Feb 08
19 Feb 08
5 Mar 08
19 Mar 08
2 Apr 08
17 Apr 08
14 May 08
30 May 08
11 June 08
17 June 08
25 June 08
TOTAL	27	25	25	11	3	2	0

Audit Committee

The Audit Committee is a central element of governance in ASADA. It is established by the ASADA CEO in accordance with section 46 of the FMA Act and the Financial Management and Accountability Orders 2.1.1 and 2.1.2. The role of the Audit Committee is to provide independent assurance and assistance to the ASADA CEO to meet his responsibilities under the FMA Act, on ASADA’s risk, control and compliance framework, and its external accountability responsibilities.

The Audit Committee comprises three external members: Ms Jennifer Clark (Chair), Mr Geoffrey Levy and Mr David Lawler. Representatives from the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO), our internal auditors (Deloitte), the Chief Operating Officer, the Chief Financial Officer and the ASADA CEO attend all committee meetings. The Audit Committee met four times during 2007–08.

The committee considered a range of issues during the year, including ASADA’s internal audit plan and our fraud and risk plans. It also managed our FMA Act compliance certificate and the implementation of ANAO and internal audit report recommendations.

Senior management committees

Executive Committee

The ASADA Executive Committee comprises the CEO, Chief Operating Officer, Group Director Deterrence, Group Director Enforcement and the Group Director Detection.

The Executive Committee is responsible for high-level policy issues relating to ASADA’s strategic leadership and management. This includes:

organisational development – shaping ASADA’s future
policy development and coordination – involving major anti-doping issues, generally with implications that involve more than one business area
corporate governance – ensuring the efficient, effective and ethical use of resources, and
planning and allocating resources – meeting current and future work priorities.

The Executive Committee is the main forum for consideration of ASADA’s governance and accountability needs.

Workplace Relations Committee

The Workplace Relations Committee was established under our Certified Agreement as a mechanism to consult with staff and provide advice to management on workplace issues, oversee the implementation of the Certified Agreement, and provide input into our successor agreement.

The Committee discusses workplace issues in a spirit of cooperation and trust, and enables employees to receive information on workplace issues affecting them, including business progress and the impact of new initiatives. The Committee allows employees to contribute their views on these issues.

The membership of the committee includes a management representative, the Chief Operating Officer, and four elected staff representatives. During 2007–08, the Committee met four times.

Risk management

ASADA is committed to a comprehensive, coordinated and systematic approach to the management of risk. The approach is directed towards helping managers anticipate uncertain events, exploit opportunities and respond appropriately to potential weaknesses.

The Corporate Policy and Framework for Managing Risk and associated guidelines are consistent with the Australian/New Zealand Standard for Risk Management (AS/NZS 4360:2004).

General business risk

Risk identification in ASADA occurs at several levels:

The Executive team identifies strategic risks that apply to most areas of ASADA. These risks are taken into account in business plans.
Group Directors and Business Unit Managers identify the main pressures, challenges, and risks that may affect their objectives in their annual business plans. This includes consideration of the strategic risks identified by the Executive Committee.
During 2007–08 risk-mitigation plans were developed for all significant and high risks.
Staff were also trained in risk assessments.
Financial risk in ASADA is managed through a range of initiatives:
- Chief Executive Instructions, which are available to all staff and put into effect the FMA Act requirements. These instructions set out responsibilities and procedures that provide an overarching framework for transparent and accountable financial management. They also contain topics relating specifically to risk management and internal accountability
- a system of Financial Delegations which ensures that commitment and spending authorities rest with appropriate staff who are informed of their responsibilities
- the Internal Audit Plan, which identifies services and functions for auditing. It incorporates issues raised by the ANAO in its audit of our financial issues, policy evaluations, previous internal audits and strategic risk management issues, statements and, where appropriate, recent ANAO reports on cross-agency matters.
- regular reports are provided to ASADA members and the Audit Committee.
Risk management and insurable risks are aligned through Comcover and Comcare.
Monitoring of risk management occurs through:
- regular monitoring of the risk register by the Executive
- regular reporting of risks to the Audit Committee, and
- monthly meetings of the Risk Committee.

ASADA participated in the annual Comcover benchmarking survey. The results of this survey showed that we can improve on implementing our risk management framework, communication, training and awareness a plan for implementation of these key areas has been established for implementation in 2008–09.

Fraud risk

ASADA has a fraud control plan that meets our needs and complies with the Commonwealth Fraud Control Guidelines. Staff within ASADA undertook fraud awareness training in 2007–08.

IT business continuity

ASADA aims to identify and manage risks associated with the delivery of IT services. IT governance includes:

the IT Disaster Recovery Plan, which sets out the strategies and processes to restore services if our central computing infrastructure is lost, either partially or completely. The plan aims to restore services within an appropriate time based on how critical the system is
business continuity plans for our IT application systems, which set out alternative methods
and processes to use, so we can continue to work while the IT environment is restored, and
our IT Security Policy that addresses the requirements to protect information holdings and secure operation of our IT resources. The policy is based on the protective security policies and standards in the Australian Protective Security Manual and the Australian Government Information and Communications Technology Security Manual.

Quality management

Compliance with International Organization for Standardization 9001:2000

ASADA’s Quality Management System continues to be certified as meeting the ISO 9001:2000
for quality management systems.

During 2007–08 two surveillance audits of our Quality Management System were conducted to assess our compliance with ISO 9001:2000. On both of these occasions, the auditor reported no major non-conformities, and recommended that certification of our Quality Management System be continued.

The scope of our ISO 9001:2000 certification is for the planning and provision of services that include:

collection of athletes’ urine and/or blood samples in line with the International Standard for Testing
management of Therapeutic Use Exemptions in accordance with the International Standard
for Therapeutic Use Exemptions
procurement of secure transport and phlebotomy services
procurement of contract analyses for detecting banned substances or methods, in line with
the Prohibited List
reporting of results of sample analysis in accordance with relevant legislation and standards
investigation of potential anti-doping rule violations
presentation of cases to anti-doping tribunals, and
anti-doping education for athletes and support personnel.

We remain committed to the continuous improvement of our Quality Management Systems and
to maintaining ISO 9001:2000 certification.

Physical security

On 15 February 2008, ASADA’s headquarters relocated offices to a purpose-built office location
in Fyshwick, Canberra.

The move to the new Fyshwick premises has greatly enhanced our physical security status.
Our records are now in an authorised-only access area and our server room security has been upgraded to ‘Protected’ status.

Ethical standards

We have our own values statement that reflects and supports the way ASADA functions within the APS legislative framework and forms part of our performance management system. We are committed to supporting and promoting the APS values and the Code of Conduct in accordance
with the APS Act.

The Chief Executive Instructions establish our financial administrative framework under the FMA Act. They provide the basis for effective, efficient, ethical and accountable use and management of Australian Government money and property. The Chief Executive Instructions provide a user-friendly approach to financial management processes and give staff guidance to help them comply with legislation and our ethical standards.

All corporate governance policies and procedures are available on our intranet site.

Social justice and equity impacts

We recognise the importance of ensuring clients have equitable access to our range of services. We adhere to the principles of natural justice and procedural fairness enshrined in our governing legislation and carried through in the operating procedures for doping control and results management processes.

Internal audits

Our internal audit services were provided by Deloitte and monitored by the Audit Committee. The 2007–08 Internal Audit Plan was based on the Strategic Audit Plan for 2007–10 and takes into consideration the risks in the Risk Management Plan and discussions with senior managers.

Internal audits conducted during the year included reviews of:

the Athletes Whereabouts Online System
results management processes and procedures
the Australian Sports Drug Medical Advisory Committee processes and procedures, and
contract procedures.

Financial management

We have continued to focus on enhancing our financial and budgetary management practices
and processes during the year. We have made significant progress towards the development of
a budgeting tool which was rolled out for the 2008–09 Budget process.

The Finance Business Unit provides advice to ASADA managers on budgetary and financial matters. During the year, staff attended financial management training sessions in the areas of accrual accounting, budget management, credit cards and delegations.

Customer service charter

Our customer service charter sets out the standard of service that people who deal with ASADA can expect, as well as the ways in which customers can help us improve customer service. The customer service charter is on the ASADA website www.asada.gov.au.

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