Bangladesh: Accord clarifies funding

After alleged misreporting of the financial situation for its first annual report by the media, the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh

issued a statement yesterday explaining its projected finances and funding. The organisation clarified that it is “well-funded and capable of meeting its full five-year programme effectively”, stressing that an “agreement has been reached with all signatories and there is no funding shortfall”.

It further stated that the “entire inspection programme encompassing circa 1500 factories will all be completed between February and September 2014” and that the cost of these inspections represents 83.4 percent of the Accord’s total income in 2014. A further 6.8 percent will be spent on operational costs, bringing the total to 90 percent of the Accord’s total income.

In its first annual report for the year ending December 31, 2013, published on 23rd July, the Accord had summed up the Bangladesh factory situation, stating that fire and building safety inspections in 800 factories had been completed as of the end of June, leaving around 700 factories still to be inspected.

According to the annual report by the US Alliance for Bangladeshi Worker Safety, the US equivalent of the Accord, which is dominated by European members, fire and building safety inspections in 587 factories have been completed. As a result, ten factories had to be fully or partially closed.

Though overall orders from Bangladesh have not decreased, international buyers have become more careful where they are producing their clothes after Rana Plaza, a building containing five garment factories, collapsed on 24th April 2013 due to structural faults, killing more than 1,100 workers and injuring thousands. "People are realising that they can't just buy from any factory," said Ian Spaulding, senior adviser to the Alliance.

Overall, the Accord will inspect more than 1,500 garment factories and the Bangladeshi government, backed by funds from the UK and The Netherlands, will inspect thousands more as it fears losing orders to neighbouring countries like India, Pakistan and others should the situation not improve.

There are currently over 5,000 garment factories operating in Bangladesh, only a small fraction of which allow the formation of worker unions, thus stifling any improvements in worker rights and preventing the production of garments becoming a democratic process.