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The Committee notes the Government’s report, the information provided in reply to its previous comments, the annual report of the Department of Labour for 2000 and the copy of the Public Service Circular No. 11/1995 respecting travelling allowances and advances for the purchase of motor vehicles. It would be grateful if the Government would provide additional information on the following points.

Articles 6, 8 and 10 of the Convention. The Committee notes that the staff of the labour inspectorate is made up of 80 per cent of women, that it is badly paid and that, in the opinion of the Government itself, this staff is inadequate in relation to the needs to be covered. The Committee wishes to emphasize the need to guarantee the staff of the labour inspectorate a status and conditions of service such that they are assured of stability of employment and are independent of any improper external influences. Indeed, it is important that such staff, whose functions are both complex and varied, are assured of living standards and career prospects such as to retain them in the profession and enable them to show the necessary impartiality and authority in their relations with workers and employers and their organizations. The Committee trusts that the Government will rapidly take the necessary measures to allocate labour inspection an appropriate proportion of the national budget so as to enable it to achieve its objectives, particularly by attracting and maintaining staff who are sufficiently competent and motivated and suitable to take on with the required level of effectiveness and independence the duties with which they are legally entrusted. The Government is requested to keep the Office informed of any developments in this respect.

Articles 16, 20 and 21. Noting the information of a general nature on the frequency and quality of the inspections of workplaces carried out by labour inspectors, and on the methods of registering the numbers of the workforce covered and the contraventions reported, the Committee notes once again that statistical information on the workplaces liable to inspection, the number of workers employed therein, the frequency and nature of inspection visits, statistics of industrial accidents and occupational diseases have still not been provided. The Committee would therefore be grateful if the Government would take the necessary measures to ensure that such information, which is essential for an assessment of the extent to which the Convention is applied, is included regularly in the annual inspection report, which it recalls must be published with a view to eliciting the reactions of all the interested parties.

Finally, noting that the Government has not indicated, as required in Part V of the report form on the Convention, whether a copy of the report and the replies to the Committee’s comments have been communicated to the most representative organizations of employers and workers, in accordance with article 23, paragraph 3, of the Constitution of the ILO, the Committee requests the Government to supply this information and to indicate any comments that may be made by these organizations.