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The Committee has been drawing the Government’s attention for several years to the need to adopt implementing legislation since the general applicability of the labour legislation to all public contracts is not sufficient in itself to give effect to the specific requirements of the Convention. In its reply, the Government indicates that at present some preliminary discussions have been undertaken between the Departments of Labour and Public Works with a view to harmonizing the national legislation with the Convention. The Committee hopes that concrete progress will be made shortly and requests the Government to keep it informed of all future developments in this respect.

Further to its previous comments, the Committee once again requests the Government to make an effort and collect relevant and up to date information concerning the matters dealt with in the Convention including, for instance, the approximate number of public contracts awarded and the number of workers engaged in their execution, extracts from labour inspection reports showing the number and nature of infringements of the labour legislation observed in the area of public procurment, copies of any official studies concerning the social aspects of public contracting, etc.

Finally, the Committee seizes this opportunity to refer to this year’s General Survey, which contains an overview of national laws and practice concerning the social dimensions of public procurement and a global assessment of the impact and present-day relevance of Convention No. 94.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2008.]