However, the modest size of the increase - just 1 per cent - may well be insufficient to prevent the body from again running up a deficit and having to dip into reserves, during a year in which the Winter Olympics and Paralympics will be staged in Sochi and final preparations must be made for introduction of the revised World Anti-Doping Code in 2015.

WADA reported deficits together totalling well over $1 million (£620,000/€740,000) in 2011 and 2012, prompting it to warn in June that it would be forced to scale back activities if the Governments - which contribute 50 per cent of its funding, but which have been desperately hard-pressed themselves in recent times - were not prepared to stump up more cash.

Minutes of an executive committee meeting now available on WADA's website make clear, however, that 2012's $770,000 (£475,000/€570,000) deficit would have been even higher had unspent research money not been identified and $1 million (£620,000/€740,000) moved back into day-to-day accounts.

The minutes, from a meeting in Montreal in May, also reveal that WADA had unallocated cash of $7.12 million (£4.4 million/€5.3 million) at the end of 2012.

John Fahey had warned that WADA was running down reserves "fairly rapidly"
©AFP/Getty Images


Then WADA President John Fahey, who has since been succeeded by Sir Craig Reedie, told the committee that he thought there was "a clear understanding going forward" that WADA was running down reserves "fairly rapidly" and would move into "going to the bank or closing some doors if it did not go to the bank by 2015".

In addition to the 1 per cent budget increase, it has been stated that WADA members are to meet their travel costs, "which will represent an effective budgetary saving of over $500,000 (£300,000/€370,000)".

The body's annual budget is approximately $28 million (£17 million/€20 million).

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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