Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2012, published 102nd ILC session (2013)

Labour Clauses (Public Contracts) Convention, 1949 (No. 94) - Cameroon (Ratification: 1962)

Article 2 of the Convention. Inspection of labour clauses in public contracts. The Committee refers to its previous comments and observes that the Government provides no fresh information other than that a new Government Procurement Ministry has been established to be responsible for updating procurement legislation, and, in particular, for drawing up a new Public Procurement Code to replace the present one, adopted in 2004.

Recalling that the Government in the report submitted in 2009 stated that validation of the preliminary draft of the Public Procurement Code was under way, the Committee points out that the provisions of the new code must prescribe that labour clauses must be included as an integral part of public contracts to ensure that workers employed in enterprises performing public contracts enjoy the same working conditions as those established for work of the same character in the trade or industry concerned in the district where the work is carried on. Furthermore, the terms of the clauses and any variations thereof must be determined by the competent national authority after consultation with the organizations of employers and workers concerned, in accordance with Article 2(3) of the Convention. The Committee wishes to point out, in this connection, that not only must public contracts include labour clauses (Article 2), but the legislation must require the posting of notices in conspicuous places at workplaces in order to inform the workers of their conditions of work (Article 4(a)(iii)) and prescribe adequate sanctions either by the withholding of contracts or by the withholding of payments due under the contract (Article 5). Accordingly, the Committee asks the Government without further delay to take the necessary steps – either in the course of revising the Public Procurement Code or through administrative measures taken by the Public Procurement Regulation Agency (ARMP) – to ensure the inclusion in all public contracts to which the Convention applies of labour clauses ensuring that workers employed in the performance of such contracts have wages and other conditions of labour which are at least as favourable as the best minimum standards established in the same district by collective agreement, arbitration award or national laws or regulations for work of the same character carried on in the same branch of activity, as required by Article 2 of the Convention. It also requests the Government to keep the Office informed of any progress in the revision of the 2004 Public Procurement Code and to send a copy of the new text as soon as it has been adopted.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2013.]