The chairman and the entire board of the embattled Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission have resigned in the wake of doubts over the effectiveness of the country's anti-doping efforts.
The government minister with responsibility for sport Natalie Neita-Headley says their resignations are necessary because of public perception of the existence of conflicts of interests.
The changes are not unexpected after an extraordinary audit of JADCO's operations by a three-person panel from the World Anti-Doping Agency in October.
In August, just days after Jamaica's participation at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow, the former executive director of JADCO Renee Anne Shirley wrote in US magazine Sports Illustrated about flaws in Jamaica's anti-doping system.
The ABC reports that eight Jamaicans in three different sports tested positive for a variety of banned drugs.
They included six track and field athletes led by two-time 200-metre Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown, former men's 100m world-record holder Asafa Powell and two-time Olympic silver medallist Sherone Simpson.
The outgoing WADA president, New Zealander John Fahey, was suggesting the Caribbean nation could face severe penalties if it were declared non-compliant with the WADA code.
But Ms Neita-Headley said, "At no time has WADA ever deemed Jamaica or JADCO to be non-compliant.
"At no time has WADA threatened to bar Jamaica or Jamaican athletes from participating in any international event - Olympic Games, World Championship or the like."
Triple world champion Usain Bolt says the misinformation of Jamaica not being eligible for the 2016 Olympics because of the anti-doping problems had cost him a potential sponsor and left him unhappy.
The IAAF athlete of the year urged officials to quickly resolve the problems.
Ms Neita-Headley attended the World Conference on Doping in Sport in Johannesburg earlier this month and says the Jamaican government is in the process of identifying the next steps to implement the recommendations that have been made to improve operations of our anti-doping agency.
"Quite recently, JADCO's Commissioners met and acknowledged that there is a public perception of the existence of conflicts of interests among some of the members of the Commission," she said.
