Notwithstanding the letters sent by the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) requesting the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) to stop issuing the Utilisation Declaration (UD) to 120 factories as the factories, which was assessed under a national initiative failed to make satisfactory progress in fixing safety faults, the traders’ body is reportedly reluctant to do so to its noncompliant member factories.
“We are yet to stop issuing the UD to any factory as we have sent letters to the factories giving one week to start remediation work,” stated the first Vice-President of the BKMEA Mohammad Hatem speaking to the media, adding, “The BKMEA would stop issuing the UD to the factories, which would fail to start remediation within a short time.”
It may be mentioned here that as per reports, on 29 December 2019, the DIFE sent a letter to the BKMEA, asking it to stop providing the UD to 46 member factories over noncompliance.
Earlier on 20 September, the DIFE had issued the first letter to the BKMEA and asked it to stop providing the UD to 74 factories in which remediation progress was not satisfactory.
However, Hatem maintained that a good number of factories out of 46 units had already discussed the matter with the DIFE and started remediation work.
