Bangladesh’s readymade garment (RMG) industry gained the highest average number of social audits, which assess labour and human rights risks, even as audits have declined in other surveyed countries including China, Vietnam, Turkey and India, according to a report by the International Trade Center (ITC).
The report said excessive auditing can lead to “fatigue” and “inefficiencies” in supply chains.
Audit fatigue may not only divert organizations from the primary goals of audits — self-improvement, transparency, and compliance — but may also encourage them to view audits as routine tasks to be completed as quickly as possible, sometimes resorting to fraudulent practices, it added.
Social auditing in supply chains is used to identify labour and human rights risks and ensure that suppliers satisfy global, regional or company standards of ethical labour and supply-chain practices.
“The decrease in social audits is also evident in countries where the Social and Labor Convergence Program (SLCP) operates. While adoption has increased, the average number of social audits has declined in all countries except Bangladesh, which also holds the highest average number of social audits among all SLCP countries,” said the ITC report published last month.
The average number of social audits per facility in Bangladesh was 3.6 in 2021, rising to 3.7 in 2022 and then returning to 3.6 in 2023.
In China, the number was 3.1 in 2021, decreasing to 2.8 in 2023. Vietnam also experienced a similar downward trend, with an average of 3.2 audits in 2021 declining to 2.6 in 2023.
The average number of social audits in Turkey and India was 2.9 and 2.5 in 2021, respectively, and fell to 2.3 and 2.2 in 2023, according to the ITC report.
The research titled ‘Navigating the Regulatory Landscape: Audit Fatigue in the Garment and Textile Industry’ examines the SLCP as an example of how data alignment and reduced auditing can be achieved.
Of the 439 respondents who participated in this SLCP signatory survey, 83% were from China, 72% from Vietnam, 57% from Bangladesh, and 49% from Türkiye, followed by India 45%, Indonesia 33%, Pakistan 21%, Sri Lanka 11%, and Thailand and Taiwan 9% each.
The SLCP provides tools to capture accurate data about working conditions in global supply chains.
This multi-stakeholder initiative replaces the need for repetitive social audits by facilitating data sharing.
