The government has started investigating the issues surfaced over non-cooperation from some garment units and inconsistencies in information about factories, hindering the safety drive under the national initiative, officials said.
The Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) has issued letters to the management of apparel factories allegedly for not cooperating with ILO-appointed engineers on inspection of fire, electrical and structural safety, they added.
The DIFE has also directed its inspectors to verify the information about factory location or address, contact number and 'closure' of a good number of units.
Earlier, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in a March 12 meeting informed the National Tripartite Committee that they found incorrect information on contact numbers of about 666 factories on the list provided by Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA).
It also alleged that the authorities of at least 62 factories didn't cooperate in conducting safety inspections on the units while the authorities of 508 factories claimed that their units remained closed.
"On March 25, we wrote to the apparel authorities who are unwilling to conduct inspection or co-operate with the process," DIFE Inspector General Syed Ahmed told the FE.
They directed their officials to look into the allegation of inconsistencies in information and collect the correct information, he said, adding that they also asked the officials to investigate the claims about factory closure.
Initially, the DIFE will pursue them to come under the inspection process, Mr Ahmed said. "The government will take legal action against the units to be found unwilling to allow safety assessment," he warned.
ILO Country Director Srinivas Reddy said the teams are ready to assess, but have been facing difficulties as many owners are not willing to give them appointment to carry out the assessment while some of them are dillydallying with the process.
"A significant number of garment factories don't want inspection and they are not cooperating with the engineers appointed by ILO," he said, adding that successful completion of the inspection programme by next month now largely depends on it.
After the Rana Plaza collapse that killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers, in April 2013, Accord and Alliance launched separate inspection programmes on Bangladesh's RMG factories from where their members procure products and completed primary safety assessments in over 1,900 factories.
TUV-SUD Bangladesh Pvt Ltd and Veritas Engineering and Consultant are assessing the rest of the garment factories that remain outside the inspection purview of Accord and Alliance under the govt-ILO joint programme under National Tripartite Plan of Action. Some 800 factories are assessed under this programme.
When contacted, some factory owners said they have insignificant volume of orders and their businesses often remain closed due to lack of orders. A good number of factories remained closed and changed contact numbers, but did not inform the associations, they added.
Matiur Rahman, managing director of Seven Star Fashions Ltd, one of the 62 factories which didn't cooperate in conducting safety inspections, claimed that this unit remained closed for last eight to nine months due to short of work orders.
"There is no need for inspection of the unit which is closed," he said, adding that there were only 54 machines in the unit that used to manufacture knit items after getting orders from buying houses.
Rafiqul Islam, owner of Monika Apparels, claimed that the allegation brought against his unit is not correct. "No one of the inspection team had visited his unit."
He said, "Sometimes we got some phone calls from different vested groups. The inspection teams should come to the factory and contact the factory authority."
But BGMEA said some 20 factories out of the 62 units had undergone the assessment programme following consultations with the apparel apex body. BGMEA is also investigating the allegation levelled by ILO.
BGMEA President Md Atiqul Islam said, "There is no alternative but to come under the assessment programme to sustain in the business."
"Buyers will stop placing orders to those units which have not been assessed yet before we take any step," he added.
munni_fe@yahoo.com
