The inspection teams appointed by the government and ILO have sent a list of three readymade garment factories to the review committee as the teams found structural faults at the units while the European retailers’ group has sent the name of one more factory to the committee after detecting serious faults at the unit. Veritas Engineering and Consultant, hired by the International Labour Organisation to conduct safety inspection in the garment factories which are not suppliers of the EU and American retailers groups, has recently found structural faults at Emerald Dresses Limited at Gazipur, Mouli Fashions Ltd at Tongi, Gazipur and Orient Dresses Ltd at Ibrahimpur in the capital. The engineers of the consulting firm found risk in some columns and suggested the review committee to evacuate a portion of the buildings immediately. On the other hand, the inspection teams of Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, the platform of EU retailers, found risk in the structure of Fakir Knitwear Ltd in Narayanganj and requested review committee to take the next course of action. ‘We received the names of four factories, three from Veritas and one from Accord, in last week where they found problems in columns and floors overloaded,’ Syed Ahmed, inspector general of the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments, told New Age on Saturday. He said that usually the inspection teams referred to the government-set review committee the names of the factories where closure was needed as the committee was the only authority to shut any unit. ‘After visiting the factories the committee will take decision within a short time and I think most of the factories will be able to run their production partially,’ he said. After the Rana Plaza building collapse on April 24, 2013, that killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers, European Union retailers formed Accord to improve safety in Bangladeshi RMG factories. At the same time, the government of Bangladesh and the ILO started a three-and-a-half-year initiative to assess 1,500 factories that have been kept outside the surveys carried out by Accord and Alliance. Accord has so far inspected more than 1,300 factories and the review committee closed 26 factories on its recommendation due to structural faults while the ILO inspected 1,000 factories and the committee closed two on its suggestion.
