Fire at Otobi factory

The confirmed death toll from South Korea’s ferry disaster has crossed 100 Tuesday, reports AFP.

The dive teams, under growing pressure from bereaved relatives, accelerated the grim task of recovering hundreds more bodies from the submerged vessel.

Improved weather conditions and calm seas spurred theirefforts, but underwater visibility was still very poor, requiringdivers to grope their way blindly though the corridors and cabinsof the ferry that capsized and sank last Wednesday.

Nearly one week into the rescue and recovery effort of oneof South Korea’s worst peacetime disasters, close to 200 of the476 people who were aboard the 6,825-tonne Sewol — most of them schoolchildren — are still unaccounted for.

The official toll provided by the coastguard Tuesday morning stood at 104, with 198 still missing.

The distraught victims’ families gathered in the morning at the harbour of Jindo island — not far from the disaster site –awaiting the increasingly frequent arrival of boats bearing the most recently recovered bodies.

In the initial days after the Sewol went down, the relatives’ anger was focused on the pace of the rescue effort.

With all hope of finding any survivors essentially extinguished, this has turned to growing impatience with the effort to locate and retrieve the bodies of those trapped.

Of the 476 people on board the Sewol, 352 were students from the Danwon High School in Ansan city just south of Seoul, who were on an organised trip to the holiday island of Jeju.

At least 10 readymade garment factories have been recently shut down in the country amid allegations that nothing much was wrong with some of these factories in terms of fire and structural compliance.

The owners of some of these factories have blamed Accord – a team of inspectors sponsored by European buyers – for “forcing” a government-formed review committee to shut those factories down on the basis of their “verbal” reports.

According to Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), the Accord has produced only 10 complete inspection reports, although it has visited around 80 factories in the last six months and recommended halting production of at least 10.

Sources said the Accord team did not have either the expertise or the equipment to properly inspect a factory. There are allegations that the recommendations were mostly based on the inspectors’ whims.

Among many other allegations against Accord, one is that it has so far not paid a penny as compensation to the workers of the closed factories, although it was handed over a fund by the European buyers for this purpose.

On November 21 last year, the Labour Ministry formed a six-member review committee, tasked with evaluating Accord’s recommendations and close factories if needed.

The committee was formed on the basis of an agreement called the National Tripartite Plan of Action (NTPA) on Fire Safety and Structural Integrity in the Garment Sector of Bangladesh, signed on July 25 last year among the government; representatives of the employers and workers associations; and foreign buyers.

The members of that committee are: Brad Loewen, chief inspector of Accord; Kazi Wahidul Haque from the Alliance for Bangladesh Workers’ Safety; Prof Ahsanul Kabir and Prof Syed Fakhrul from Buet; Syed Ahmed, inspector general of the Labour Ministry’s Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments; and Shahidullah Azim, vice-president of BGMEA.

Usually, about two weeks before inspecting a factory, the Accord team would send an email to the owner.

After inspection, they would hold a meeting with the government review committee to discuss the findings and decide on next course of action.

Buet Professor Ahsansul Kabir told the Dhaka Tribune that: “During our discussion, we [the committee and Accord] try to find out the discrepancies between the original approved design and the actual structure. The Accord team verbally tells us about their findings following which we do some rough calculations and reach certain estimations.”

When the Dhaka Tribune wanted to see documents, he claimed: “Those are engineering terms, which you will not understand. The estimations are 100% accurate.”

There are also discrepancies between what the Accord team says and the review team knows about how the inspections are done.

Rob Ways, executive director (Bangladesh operations) of Accord, claimed that they used ferro scanners and thermal imaging cameras to check structural compliance of factories.

However, Prof Kabir said the Accord inspectors only used sledgehammers to check the material used in the columns.

Last month, the team recommended the review committee to temporarily shut down two factories – Fame Knitwear and Softex Cotton – both located in the same building in the capital’s Mirpur. They said the columns and the foundation of the building was not strong enough bear the load. They also claimed to have found discrepancies between the original design and the actual structure.

Md Moshiul Azam Shajal, owner of Fame Knitwear and also a BGMEA director, told the Dhaka Tribune that: “The Accord team told me that the foundation of the building was weak.”

He claimed that the Accord team did not conduct the “soil boring test” and therefore could not comment on the foundational weakness of the building.

Mahbubur Rahman, officer of Dhaka development authority Rajuk, also said a soil test was needed for determining the strength of the building’s foundation.

Interestingly, the Accord team has not discussed anything about the matter with the review committee. Prof Kabir said they discussed problems with the building’s structural design, not about foundational weaknesses.

When asked, Mahbubur Rahman said there was absolutely nothing wrong with the structural design of the building.

Rajuk or the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakka is the authority in charge of approving structural designs of the buildings erected within the capital. The Labour Ministry review committee does not have any representative from Rajuk.

Mahbubur also said: “The Accord team cannot say anything verbally and recommend closing a building. What they are doing is not the proper way. They have to give a certificate mentioning the tests they have conducted and also their results so that we can understand. If any building is unsafe, it should be written in a certificate.”

Earlier this month, a member of the review committee informed the Dhaka Tribune that Accord had recommended closing Attune Garments Ltdin the capital’s Mirpur area. It is located in the same building as the Softex Cotton, which the Accord team had actually inspected and recommended for closing.

Interestingly, Attune owner claimed that the factory had been under lock and key for more than 15 years because of fund crunch.

“Neither did I get any email for did any Accord team inspect my factory. I have no idea how the team could call for closing a factory that had been closed many years ago,” said Towhid Islam, owner of Attune.

According to the working norms of the review committee, if just one member disagrees with the Accord recommendations, the committee cannot shut down a factory.

Shahidullah Azim, a member of the review committee, told the Dhaka Tribune: “Accord is kind of stubborn. During a meeting, our Buet specialists did not want to sign a closure order but they literally forced them to.”

Azim said: “Accord did not give any money for remediation as is mentioned in their rules. They have a fund for the workers but the workers did not get any money from it.”

He also said: “If the results are based on estimation then they are not correct. I am not a technical person so I do not understand. If it is true then I will not sign [any closure order]. As far as I know, they use a formula for calculation.”

Softex Knitwear owner and BGMEA Director Md Moshiul Azam Shajal said he had a suspicion that the Accord team might have come on a mission to destroy the highest foreign currency earning sector of the country’s economy, only to serve the interest of some other countries.

When asked whether they made recommendations based on estimations, Accord ED Rob ways said: “The allegation is misplaced. Accord assessments are based on professional assessments performed by highly qualified
experts.”

When inquired about the name and qualification of the engineers, he did not give any direct answer. “Our engineers are very busy, so it is not possible to talk to them,” he said.