FORMER ASADA CHIEF EXECUTIVE

1. In January 2013, ASADA’s intelligence and investigations section was run by Michael O’Leary. O’Leary warned CEO Andruska that if the ACC goes public, ASADA’s investigation will become a media circus. Andruska says that, in an ideal world, ASADA wouldn’t have embarked on a major investigation with so much background noise. (Source: Interview between Chip Le Grand and Aurora Andruska 23 January 2015).
   
   
2. Nothing could be clearer. Andruska acknowledged that the investigation was compromised before the first witness was interviewed. In acknowledging that it was not an ideal investigation, Andruska was all but saying that Essendon was denied procedural fairness.
   
   
3. The media conference was just one part of a flawed and corrupted process. ASADA and the AFL’s breaches of relevant Acts and their improper processes amounted to a gross denial of procedural fairness (natural justice) for the Essendon Football Club and all individual ‘defendants’ James Hird, Danny Corcoran and Mark Thompson.
   
   
4. ASADA acted outside its charter by not only participating in talks with the Gillard Government, but by accepting instructions from the Gillard Government.
   
   
5. Andruska was asked during the Middleton Federal Court hearing to explain why, given ASADA’s statutory obligation to operate independent of government [my emphasis], Gillard government officials were routinely present during meetings and telephone hook-ups throughout the investigation. She couldn’t explain. This was a clear admission by Andruska that ASADA failed to fulfil its statutory obligations. Accordingly, the investigation should have been be declared null and void and WADA should never have been allowed to submit to any jurisdiction any of the supposed ‘evidence’ collected or provided by ASADA to support its unsafe findings.
   
   
6. Justice John Middleton asked Andruska whether it was unusual for her to be at a meeting with the minister, her press adviser and the head of a sporting body. “Yes, it was”, she said. One would hope it was unusual, as in participating in these meetings she was operating outside her statutory obligations to be independent of government, or any other external influences.
   
   
7. ASADA behaved improperly by capitulating to requests by AFL officials to fix the report to help the AFL gain a conviction.
   
   
8. On 26 June 2013, Andruska spoke to McLachlan. She noted McLachlan’s comments as follows: ‘Take points off Essendon; We need all the detail to get through that; Problematic if not full report; Get outcome we need; Take bits out that might compromise what we need’ (my emphasis). McLachlan was telling Andruska what he needed in the interim report to find Essendon guilty, which would enable the AFL to take points off Essendon.
   
   
9. Shortly after the commencement of the ASADA/AFL joint investigation with the Gillard Labor Government’s knowledge and approval, ASADA reached an agreement with the AFL not to penalise the Essendon players. This was prior to any discovery of any serious misconduct by wilful breaches of the anti-doping codes by the players. Thus, ASADA breached its charter by agreeing to ignore its obligations to identify those who breached the anti-doping codes. It also suggests that ASADA was targeting support staff and would do whatever was necessary to establish a case against them. ASADA behaved improperly in making an agreement with the AFL not to penalise the Essendon players before hearing any evidence;
   
   
10. ASADA, by making an agreement with the AFL not to penalise the players, compromised and potentially contaminated the evidence provided by the players, as it was in their interest to answer questions, frequently leading questions in whatever way they thought the investigators might be wanting.
    
    
11. ASADA breached the confidentiality provisions of the Act by giving the Interim Report to the AFL without cast iron assurances that the AFL wouldn’t disseminate the information. Unconscionably, the AFL then breached the confidentiality clauses by including vast slabs of the report in its 34-page charge sheet, which it released to the public on 13 August 2013.
    
    
12. ASADA breached the confidentiality provisions in the Act by conducting a joint investigation and by leaking details of its investigation to the media. Although ASADA and AFL acknowledge that there was leaking to the media, each blames the other for the leaks. In fact, it is quite irrelevant which organisation leaked the information. Since it was a joint investigation, both are culpable.
    
    
13. ASADA provided Clothier, as one of the two AFL representatives on the joint investigatory body, access to all evidence from others and then allowed him to give evidence while remaining on the committee;
    
    
14. Despite overwhelming evidence contradicting Clothier’s version of events, ASADA accepted Clothier’s misrepresentations or fabrications in his email evidence as fact;
    
    
15. ASADA created cases against Essendon and support staff at the behest of the AFL. On 16 July 2013, AFL integrity manager Brett Clothier met with ASADA officials to discuss the Interim Report. During the meeting Clothier indicated that he wanted the Interim Report “assembled in a way that paints a picture of uncontrolled environment at Essendon”. In his affidavit, ASADA’s Trevor Burgess said: “It was said for ASADA, I think by Ms Andruska, we may be able to include some commentary on the environment that existed’.” Burgess subsequently wrote to AFL’s McLachlan informing him that, ‘Specifically, the report will include conclusions on the environment at Essendon’.
    
    
16. Andruska attended a meeting with AFL officials Demetriou, Clothier and senior counsel Andrew Dillon on 24 July 2013. Demetriou stated: “Two or three things cannot afford to be made public.” At this stage the investigation hadn’t been completed. The AFL hadn’t been given ASADA’s Interim Report. Essendon hadn’t been given the evidence against it. Essendon hadn’t even been charged with anything. Essendon hadn’t been given a hearing on any such charges. Demetriou was to sit on the jury with his fellow commissioners to determine if, and where, any guilt lay and any penalties to be issued. And yet the commissioners already “know the case” and Demetriou has already decided on the penalties. It’s impossible to imagine greater misconduct and impropriety – all facilitated by a lack of governance.
    
    
17. Clothier was not questioned on his late-stage email evidence and ASADA included only part of the email in the report. Nor did it re-interview those who were damaged by the misrepresentations in Clothier’s evidence. Most alarmingly, the Age newspaper’s Caroline Wilson column on the content of Clothier’s email appeared in the Age’s on-line edition at 3:00 AM on 17 July 2013. Unconscionably, Clothier’s email to ASADA was sent nine hours and 33 minutes later at 12:33 PM, which begs the question: Who constructed the email and who leaked the email to Wilson.
    
    
18. ASADA behaved deceitfully in misrepresenting Hird’s position responsibilities and reporting relationships in the Essendon FC hierarchy, despite overwhelming evidence of the correct line of supervisory responsibilities;
    
    
19. ASADA behaved improperly in referring to Thymosin inappropriately as Thymosin Beta-4 throughout the document;
    
    
20. ASADA behaved deceitfully in accepting as fact David Evans’ evidence regarding his decision to self-report the Essendon FC in a way that protected Evans, Demetriou and McLachlan, and against substantial testimony and evidence to the contrary;
    
    
21. ASADA behaved deceitfully in using quotes, and accepting purported quotes, from Stephen Dank that appeared in the media, which put him in a questionable light, but not including quotes from him that helped his claim of no breach of WADA rules;
    
    
22. ASADA behaved improperly in going outside its charter by investigating and making findings on human resources, including OH&S procedural matters;
23. ASADA behaved deceitfully in not declaring openly that it was investigating human resources matters at Essendon FC;
    
    
24. ASADA behaved improperly in apportioning blame to non-executive, non-line managers for purported OH&S and other human resources procedural lapses, when any responsibility lay with Paul Hamilton, the general manager-football operations, with the senior officer responsible for OH&S, and most especially with the chief executive the Essendon FC Board of Directors and AFL Commissioners;
    
    
25. ASADA investigators were neither entitled nor qualified to investigate human resources issues. On the grounds of being both outside ASADA’s legitimate brief and its investigators lacking relevant skills and knowledge, any information collected, or recommendations made about human resources or OH&S should have been deemed inadmissible and forbidden to be used in establishing grounds for charges;
    
    
26. ASADA, while outside its legal brief in considering human resources matters, gave no attention to AFL OH&S procedural failures, which should have been taken into account when assessing Essendon FC staff members’ culpability;
    
    
27. ASADA behaved with improper bias and/or wilful negligence by, inter alia, ignoring governance failures by the AFL; failing to identify and highlight evidence by David Evans and Essendon FC chief executive, Ian Robson, that was at variance with known fact; failing to acknowledge the general manager-football operations, Paul Hamilton, as the senior Essendon FC administrator responsible for the supplement program and , therefore, any of its failings; and protecting Andrew Demetriou from scrutiny in relation to the sudden Essendon FC self-reporting of possible breaches of the anti-doping codes, amongst other improprieties.
    
    
28. During an interview on 23^rd of January 2015 between Chip Le Grand and Andruska, Andruska said “their objectives and ASADA’s objectives are almost at odds with each other. They are about protecting their business, protecting their brand. We are about making sure that Australia complies with its legal obligations.” Source The Straight Dope.