Bangladesh: Report finds 'shocking level of unreadiness' by govt. to take over Accord's work
"Bangladesh Government's Safety Inspection Agencies Not Ready to Take Over Accord's Work", 1 April 2019
The government of Bangladesh is using proceedings before the Supreme Court of Bangladesh to prevent the Accord on Fire and Building Safety from operating, thereby putting workers’ safety at risk. A ruling on 7 April 2019... could require the Accord to close its Dhaka office and operations without taking into account whether national agencies would be ready to take up the work.
The government... claim... [it] is ready to assume responsibility for the 1,688 factories under the Accord’s purview, but our research shows a shocking level of unreadiness. In particular, we find that:
...government-run databases intended to provide information on the remediation of garment factories are inconsistent and fail to provide information on follow-up inspections.
Each of the 745 factories under the government’s inspection programme have yet to eliminate high risk safety hazards, all of which were identified between three and five years ago...
...The Accord identified 114... critically unsafe factories, which it subsequently terminated from its inspection program. Today, half of these same facilities remain open under the government’s inspection program. There is no indication... that any safety improvements have been made to these factories...