JADCO looking to move on from Brown
JAMAICA ANTI-DOPING Commission (JADCO) chairman Alexander Williams has said that the body would not be applying for a lift on an injunction, which sees its executive director, Carey Brown, remaining in his job.
Brown was on September 11 terminated from his role by JADCO’s board, which said it had lost confidence in his ability as executive director. He was, however, given 30 days’ notice, meaning he was to leave office on October 30. Brown was then granted an injunction to remain on the job by the courts, on the grounds that he was hired by JADCO as a public servant then moved to the role of executive director, therefore the decision to terminate him does not rest with JADCO’s board.
Williams said that JADCO does not find it necessary to appeal the injunction at this time as a ruling is expected from the court soon.
“The judge has reserved his decision and has continued the injunction that Mr Brown remains on the job,” Williams
said. “However, he said that if we are so advanced, we can apply to lift that injunction. I don’t feel any pressure right now to do that, reason being things are running fairly smoothly now at JADCO and I do not now expect the judge to take very long in his decision.
But, obviously, if he is taking quite a bit of time, and it is causing us some prejudice, then I will apply to the courts. That is something, of course, I’ll discuss with our attorney (Althea Jarrett) and we’ll take it from there.”
Brown was sought for a comment on the matter but calls to his phone went unanswered. His lawyer, Hugh Wildman, did not say much on the matter when contacted by The Gleaner, except that he and his client are patiently awaiting the a ruling by the judge, to decide where to go from there.
Williams also confirmed that JADCO has received three applications for a new executive director after recently advertising the vacancy, however, he said that no short listing has been done so far.
“We need somebody with some senior management experience,” he said. “We cited (in the advertisement) the provisions under the Anti-Doping In Sports Act. They would have to liaise with the World AntiDoping Agency and what the reporting requirements are in relation to the board of the commission. We don’t necessarily need somebody with experience in anti-doping to become the Executive Director. As far as I’m aware, none of the previous Executive Directors had experience prior to the role.
Given that JADCO sought to terminate Brown’s employment saying that there was no confidence in his ability to carry out his duties, The Gleaner asked Williams why it was seeking another person, who may not necessarily have experience in anti-doping matters. He said that this is to prevent a conflict of interest should someone who serves as, or had previously served a sporting administrator be hired.