Duplication in follow-up inspections at the country’s garment factories that produce both for Accord and Alliance is taking place due to lack of consensus among the two platforms of European and North American brands and buyers, factory owners have said. The factory owners say they have requested the retailers’ groups — Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, the platform of North American buyers and retailers, and EU’s Accord on Building and Fire Safety in Bangladesh — to accept each other’s certification on remediation verification inspections like the initial inspections arguing that the safety assessment and remediation are being carried out under a harmonised standard. Alliance officials have also admitted that duplication in remediation verification visit at common factories is being taken place and it is possible to avoid the situation through forming an inspection team comprising engineers from both initiatives to conduct follow-up inspections in the common factories. Accord officials, however, say that both the Accord and Alliance will do follow-up inspections in joint factories. There is no confusion or hassle for the factories, they say. ‘We have requested National Tripartite Committee to discuss the issue on its next meeting as the duplication in follow-up inspections is a big hassle for the factory owners and the process is creating some confusions,’ Siddiqur Rahman, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, told New Age on Sunday. According to the Alliance officials, duplication in follow-up inspections has already taken place in 130 common factories and if the two platforms fail to reach a consensus, the overlap will occur in all 300 common factories. The BGMEA has also sent a letter to the buyers’ groups requesting to avoid duplication in follow-up inspections. In the letter the BGMEA said that the duplication in remediation verification visits put the factories concerned under pressure as they were required to face inspection teams of both the Accord and the Alliance. The trade body claimed the visits of two platforms often put forward conflicting views and created unforeseen obstacles in the planned implementation of corrective action plan. ‘We would like to suggest that either the Accord or the Alliance should complete entire assessment process covering initial inspection, CAP approval and remediation verification visits so that process remains smooth and no confusion or hassle arise,’ the BGMEA said. ‘Yes, it is true that duplication in follow-up inspections at the common factories are being occurred as the brands of the Accord and the Alliance who procure products from the factories want to know the update of remediation works,’ M Rabin, executive director of Alliance, told New Age. He, however, said that it was possible to avoid the duplication if the two platforms agreed to form a technical team to conduct follow-up inspection at common factories. ‘We gave the proposal to the Accord to form a team comprising engineers from both initiatives but the EU retailers’ group has yet to respond,’ Rabin said. Brad Loewen, the chief safety inspector of the Accord, told New Age that they replied the BGMEA saying that both the initiatives would conduct verification visit in common factories. In a letter the Accord informed the BGMEA that ‘although the Accord and the Alliance have agreed to recognise one another’s inspection reports and also recognise each organisation has independent and complementary obligations to their member companies to verify compliance.’ Whenever possible, such verifications will be conducted jointly by teams consisting of representatives from both the initiatives, the Accord informed the BGMEA in the letter. ‘However, this is not always feasible. As such, the initiatives require suppliers to afford inspectors and engineers from each initiative equal and open access for the purpose of conducting remediation verification visits with appropriate prior notice. Failure to admit inspectors or engineers for this purpose may result in action by either initiative to suspend approval or escalate compliance action,’ the Accord letter said. After the Rana Plaza building collapse, which killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers, in April 2013, retailers and apparel brands from the EU and North America separately formed the Accord and the Alliance. Both the initiatives announced inspection programmes and completed inspections in 2,185 garment factories. During the initial inspections the Accord and Alliance agreed to accept each other’s certification to avoid duplication in inspection. As many as 34 factories which supply products to the members of the Accord and the Alliance were shut down during the inspections and 23 others were partially closed down due to structural faults.
