Federal police investigation found no ASADA leaks
Date
June 6, 2014 - 9:16PM
Samantha Lane
Sports Writer
Australian Federal Police conducted a four-month investigation of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority to determine whether the agency had leaked privileged information during the ongoing AFL and NRL drug probes.
The AFP has confirmed to Fairfax Media that the investigation, which was referenced in vague terms at a Senate estimates hearing this week, began on June 27, 2013, and finished on October 13.
According to the AFP, the investigation was referred by ASADA, which has been under intense scrutiny and criticised in some camps since the government-funded body launched unprecedented probes into the AFL and NRL 17 months ago.
Breaches of confidentiality provisions outlined in the National Anti-Doping Scheme and ASADA Act carry a maximum two-year jail sentence for ASADA employees or officers. The last known leak-related investigation of ASADA was triggered by the AFL in 2006 and cost taxpayers $200,000.
After an extraordinary 11-month exercise that started with federal police arriving unannounced at the anti-doping authority equipped with evidence bags and a search warrant, the AFP determined that allegations ASADA had improperly disclosed information about footballers and illicit drug use were unfounded.
According to the AFP, ASADA requested, on June 26, 2013, that it be investigated again. Sixteen weeks later, the AFP informed ASADA it had found no evidence of the agency breaching confidentiality provisions.
The investigation determined no Commonwealth offence had been disclosed, the AFP said in a written statement to Fairfax Media.
The AFP would not say if there were any moves to conduct another investigation of ASADA, given the highly publicised drugs probes into the NRL and AFL remain open eight months after police concluded their work.
When Ben McDevitt this week faced Senate estimates questioning for the first time since becoming ASADAs CEO, he said he had not seen the AFPs report into the investigation and that he assumed it had been prepared for his predecessor, Aurora Andruska.
Asked whether the AFP report would be released, Department of Health secretary Jane Halton said: We dont ever release those kind of reports. I do not have a physical copy ... I am aware of its contents.
The AFP investigation of ASADA in 2006 came after Fairfax Media learnt of the identity of three AFL footballers who had tested positive to illicit drugs. The AFL successfully suppressed the publication of the names after taking out an injunction in the Victorian Supreme Court.
Richard Ings, then ASADAs CEO, was blindsided when federal police arrived and informed him the agency was under investigation because the AFL considered ASADA responsible for the leaked names.
Police were planted in ASADAs offices for a fortnight it made business-as-usual operations near impossible, Ings recalled on Friday.
They took documents, scoured emails and established that eight staff members from ASADAs body of roughly 60 employees were aware of the AFL footballers identities. Those eight staff members were individually interviewed by federal police in Canberra for between two abd four hours each.
Eleven months after the investigation was launched, ASADA was advised there was no evidence that the anti-doping agency had leaked.
