The Independent Commission set up by the UCI to investigate its management of the sport during the Lance Armstrong era was disbanded by the governing body in a ‘unilateral decision’, its members have noted.
The three-strong panel, chaired by former Appeal Court judge, Sir Philip Otton, and which had included Dame Tani Grey-Thompson among its membership, today issued a terse statement noting its disbandment by the UCI, seemingly without consultation.
The Independent Commission (UCIIC) also criticised the governing body and its stakeholders for an alleged failure to offer full co-operation with its investigation, and has scrapped a public hearing due to have taken place in London on Thursday (31).
“When this Commission was announced, Pat McQuaid stated that the UCI ‘will co-operate fully with the Commission and provide them with whatever they need to conduct their inquiry’ and urged ‘all other interested stakeholders to do the same,’” IC members said in a statement.
“Neither the UCI, nor interested stakeholders have provided sufficient co-operation to enable the Commission to do its job. This failure to cooperate makes our task impossible. Therefore, the proposed hearing on 31 January 2013 will not take place.”
The UCI set-up the IC as part of its response to the USADA report into systematic doping at the Lance Armstrong-led US Postal Service team; one which accused the UCI of negligence and complicity with Armstrong – charges the governing body vehemently rejects.
A u-turn by the Swiss-based authority, whose president, Pat McQuaid, and honorary president, Hein Verbruggen, have faced repeated calls to resign, has led to a proposed ‘truth and reconciliation commission’.
The UCI said in a statement yesterday that it had embraced the so-called ‘T&R’ procedure at the behest of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), whom it claimed would not back the findings of the Independent Commission.
The UCIIC said it would welcome the formation of an independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission if it included “a thorough and expeditious investigation of the UCI’s role in the Lance Armstrong/USPS doping affair.”
“Any TRC will represent a chance once and for all to break the code of silence that has allowed the use of performance enhancing drugs to be hidden and perpetuated,” the IC said.
But it cast doubt on the ability of the UCI and WADA to agree on the proposed TRC’s terms of reference and suggested its own work had been terminated too swiftly.
