Task force yet to approve CAPs

An inordinate delay in conducting detailed engineering assessments (DEA) and giving approval to corrective action plans (CAP) has created roadblocks to timely execution of remediation for non-compliant garment factories which have been identified under a government-ILO joint drive, sources said.
More than a year after the inspection programme started, the government in December last year formed two taskforces to oversee the post-inspection activities in RMG sector, including hiring consultancy firms to conduct DEA as well as approving CAP and monitoring its implementation.
Headed by the Inspector General (IG) of Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE), both the committees were comprised of representatives from BUET, RAJUK and Fire Service and Civil Defence.
The taskforces last month selected 19 engineering firms to conduct DEA, but they are yet to finalise any CAP, the sources added.
Under the joint move, assessment of the garment factories that remained outside the purview of Accord and Alliance started in November 2013 and so far 1,000 units had been inspected till June 24. More than 600 units are expected to be assessed by the revised deadline of July 31.
Officials, however, attributed the delay in completing inspections to impediment to the start of the remedial work.  
According to teachers of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), the remedial work of 200 factories that had been assessed in first phase should be completed by the deadline, saying that it took two months to conduct DEA and another 10 months to retrofit the units or fix other compliance issues.
BUET submitted reports on 200 factories in March and on 300 others in December last to DIFE. Some 675 garment factories received assessment reports, according to DIFE.
DIFE last month issued letter to the factory authorities, asking them to submit their CAPs for approval so that they can immediately start the fault-fixing remediation activities in manufacturing units.
"Responsibility for the approval or receipt of CAPs and DEAs lies with the relevant government authority (DIFE)," ILO Country Director for Bangladesh Srinivas Reddy told the FE recently.
ILO is strongly supporting DIFE through a series of ongoing capacity building activities that will better equip it with the skills needed to develop and monitor CAPs, he said, adding that support is also being provided to Fire Service while ILO is looking at ways to support RAJUK to build its capacity as a regulating authority.
"It should be noted that the responsibility for developing CAPs and carrying out DEAs, if required, lies with factory owners," he added.
As factory owners expressed concern that they were facing difficulties in developing CAPs, ILO has assisted in developing case management, DEA guideline development and corrective action-related processes so that this work can advance, he mentioned.
The timeframe to develop a CAP after factory receipt is two weeks, Mr Reddy added.
When contacted, DIFE IG Syed Ahmed said, "Last month we selected 13 firms to conduct DEA."
"The National Initiative is now moving towards the factory remediation phase with a pilot programme which sees 10 DIFE inspectors explaining the process of developing CAP to a selected number of factories. This will provide useful experience and lessons on the time, skills and resources needed to manage this process before it is fully rolled out to all factories," he added.
"We got CAPs from 10 garment factories," he said.
However, experts expressed doubt whether DIFE inspectors have capability and knowledge in this regard, saying that any misleading interpretation of the reports might yield negative result for the industry.
While talking to the FE, some manufacturers claimed that they have already identified the problems in line with the inspection reports. They alleged that none comes forward to assist them financially, although the same is done by Accord and Alliance.
Mehedi Ahmed Ansary, a BUET teacher, said though buyers are not involved with the inspection programme especially with the factories under the national initiative, ILO is providing financial support to the factories be inspected free of cost. "Remediation of 200 factories assessed first should be completed by now as they get nearly one and half years," he opined.
    munni_fe@yahoo.com