1ST LEAD IOC wants independent anti-doping programme in place by 2018 Olympics By Stefan Tabeling, dpa

Lausanne, Switzerland (dpa) - A new anti-doping programme independent of international federations is to be up and running by the 2018 Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said at the conclusion of its executive committee meeting on Thursday.Under the new programme, tests are to be carried out only by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and sanctions given only by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.Presently each country has its own anti-doping agency but the IOC is reacting after a systematic programme of doping and cover-ups was found in Russian athletics, which led to Russia being suspended by athletics governing body IAAF.Additionally the new anti-doping unit should possess a "professional intelligence gathering unit" which "would allow WADA to be proactive," the IOC said.It is not clear how long the change from the existing anti-doping programme will take but the IOC has set the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang as a target.The three-day executive committee meeting in Lausanne also agreed the IOC would launch an independent audit of money it provided to sports organizations."Recent incidents have shown that, in the interest of the credibility of all sports organisations immediate action to reinforce good governance is necessary," the IOC said.The IAAF and world football governing body FIFA are currently engulfed by various corruption affairs and IOC president Thomas Bach warned this could taint the Olympic movement."I think it is obvious many sports organizations are concerned because many people do not make this distinction (between different federations)," Bach said at a news conference. "They generalize."The IOC is backing the local organizing committee of the 2016 Rio Olympics with some 1.5 billion dollars and also gives many millions to other sport federations and projects.However, Bach said that audits of the 2016 Games would not cover deals made between the city of Rio and various construction companies."What we want to achieve is that this money which is coming from sport is going to sport and that the decisions on who is benefiting at the end from these contributions are being taken with respect to rules of good governance."