Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) on Friday dismissed the Transparency International Bangladesh report on graft and irregularities in the country’s RMG supply chain as completely baseless, false and ill-motivated. “We think TIB will have to know research methodology further. Making a wholesale observation taking interviews of only 74 persons among tens of thousands of workers, entrepreneurs and buyers can never be pleasant to the industry,” said BGMEA President Siddiqur Rahman at a press conference. The BGMEA arranged the press conference at the BGMEA Bhaban in the capital in reaction to the TIB survey report which was released on Thursday showing that irregularities and corruption have engulfed the whole supply chain of the Readymade Garment (RMG) sector.Indentifying 16 phases of supply chain where corruption is apparent and needs to be addressed, the report said bribery has become a regular practice to hide lapses in standard of goods, quantity and compliance. Factory owners, merchandisers and buyers are involved, it said. The BGMEA president said the report will obstruct the progress of the industry. They have not expected such a report at a time when the RMG sector exported higher than the target in the first half of the current fiscal year overcoming the image crisis created for Tazreen and Rana Plaza tragedies and political instability, he added. Saying that the second review of sustainable compact is going to be held on January 28 in Dhaka, Siddiqur Rahman said the disclosure of such a report in this critical time can never be friendly to the industry, the country and humanity. About alleged briberies in the sector, he posed a question that how it is logical that buyers are being convinced with bribe when they are working under conditions of the Accord and Alliance. The BGMEA president also questioned whether the TIB uses the foreign fund to conduct research or harm the economy by making the RMG sector instable.
