Geneva, Switzerland (BBN)-The Bangladesh Government has so far inspected structural, fire and electrical safety provisions of 1000 readymade garment (RMG) factories in the country, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) said in a press statement.

Following the Rana Plaza collapse in 2013, the immediate priority was to carry out safety inspections of all 3,508 export-oriented RMG factories throughout Bangladesh.

So far, some 2,904 RMG factories have been inspected of which 1,000 fall under the government’s National Initiative under the Tripartite Plan of Action, supported by the ILO with backing from Canada, the Netherlands and the UK.

A further 1,904 factories have been inspected by the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety and the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety. In all, 604 factories from the original list remain to be inspected.

Syed Ahmed, Inspector General of the Department of Inspection of Factories and Establishments (DIFE ) said, “This is a significant milestone as we seek to create a safer RMG sector for Bangladesh. We are now making concerted efforts to complete as many inspections as possible by the 31 July deadline. We shall not compromise on the safety of workers. After this date, factories will no longer receive inspections for free and will need to meet the costs themselves if they wish to continue exporting.”

“The national initiative is now moving into the factory remediation phase with a pilot programme which sees DIFE inspectors explaining the process of developing Corrective Action Plans to a select 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 under the National Initiative,” he added.

Inspection of all 1,827 factories under the national initiative has been hampered due to the number of factories having closed, moved or changed contact details. Significant efforts involving DIFE, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) and ILO are underway to create a comprehensive and accurate list of actively exporting RMG factories. This will be a valuable tool and will form the basis for future follow up activities and knowledge management systems, the statement said.

Srinivas Reddy, ILO Country Director for Bangladesh highlighted that the scope of the National Initiative goes far beyond carrying out factory inspections.

“The national initiative has seen an intensive process of cooperation and collaboration on areas such as the harmonization of inspection standards and reporting. Considerable efforts have also been made to establish management processes within regulators to effectively follow up on inspection reports in a systematic and transparent manner,” he said. (SH).

BBN/SK/AD